Juvenile Justice

Juvenile Justice: Concept, Measures, Procedure and Defence (Organic Law 5/2000)

Juvenile criminal justice in Spain is governed by Organic Law 5/2000, of 12 January, on Criminal Responsibility of Minors (LORRPM), partially reformed by Organic Law 8/2006 and Organic Law 8/2021 on Comprehensive Protection of Childhood and Adolescence. Its scope of application extends to persons over 14 and under 18 years old at the time of the act (Art. 1 LORRPM); minors under 14 are not criminally responsible and can only be subject to protection measures from the Childhood Protection System (Act 26/2015). The protected legal interest is plural: victim protection, minor's responsibility and, above all, their re-education and social reintegration (Art. 25.2 SC). Constitutional Court doctrine and Supreme Court case-law have consolidated the sanctioning-educational character of the system, where punishment is replaced by the measure of educational nature.

The applicable measures to the minor are numerous and modulated according to age, severity of the act and personal characteristics. Custodial measures include closed regime detention (for serious offences, less serious offences with violence, intimidation or serious risk, or acts committed in a group or gang: Art. 9.2 LORRPM), semi-open regime detention, open regime detention and therapeutic detention. Non-custodial measures comprise probation, cohabitation with another person, family or educational group, community service, socio-educational tasks, warning, driving licence or weapon licence withdrawal and day centre attendance. The general maximum duration is 2 years (Art. 9.3 LORRPM); in the situations of Art. 9.2 it rises to 3 years (ages 14-15) or 6 years (ages 16-17), and for the offences in Art. 10.2 (homicide, murder, rape, terrorism…) closed-regime detention runs from 1 to 5 years (14-15) or 1 to 8 years (16-17), plus supervised release; with several offences, one of them in that group, it may reach 6 or 10 years (Art. 11.2 LORRPM).

The procedure before the Juvenile Section of the Court of Instance (Sección de Menores; formerly the Juvenile Court) presents notable specialties. The investigation is led by the Public Prosecutor's Office (not the investigating judge), under the principle of regulated opportunity: it may decide not to open a file where correction within the educational and family setting suffices (Art. 18 LORRPM), end it after conciliation or reparation (Art. 19 LORRPM), or open it and notify the Juvenile Section (Art. 16 LORRPM). The trial is held before the Juvenile Judge, who may order that the hearing be held in private; images or data identifying the minor may never be disseminated (Art. 35.2 LORRPM). The defence must be exercised by a trusted lawyer or duty roster specialized in minors. The parents or legal representatives are called to the procedure (Art. 22 LORRPM) and have joint civil liability with the minor (Art. 61.3 LORRPM), responding for the damages caused. The execution phase of the measures is managed by the Public Entity of each Autonomous Community.

The technical defence in juvenile justice is built on four specific axes. First, activation of the opportunity principle: in less serious crimes without violence, the Prosecutor can archive or refer to family mediation and reparation to the victim; the technical team (psychologists, educators) prepares decisive reports for the judge. Second, challenging the demand for detention: constitutional and supranational case-law (Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, Beijing Rules, Riyadh Guidelines) requires that detention always be last resort; it must be proven that non-custodial measures are insufficient. Third, proof of the re-educational environment: stable family context, schooling, extracurricular activities, absence of records and reparative purpose favour non-custodial measures. Fourth, expert challenge: the Prosecutor's technical team reports can be opposed with party expert evidence from clinical psychologists, criminologists and social educators.

In current forensic practice we observe a progressive hardening of juvenile justice for serious crimes (school bullying with harmful result, sexual assaults, homicides, juvenile sicariato), while mediation and reparation mechanisms are reinforced for minor offences. Organic Law 8/2021 on Comprehensive Protection of Childhood, Organic Law 10/2022 on Comprehensive Protection of Sexual Freedom, the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention (in cases of online crimes committed by minors: cyberbullying, sexting, peer grooming), the Istanbul Convention on violence against women and domestic violence, Organic Law 1/2025 on Justice Service Efficiency and regional protocols on school bullying and cyberbullying configure an evolving regulatory framework. At Alonso Sala, with more than 15 years of experience, we defend accused minors articulating a triple approach: legal (procedural guarantees control, correct qualification of the act, technical opposition to custodial measures), educational (psychosocial reports proving the minor's re-educational context) and reparative (mediation with victim, voluntary reparation, commitment to community activities). We coordinate with clinical psychologists, social educators, criminologists specialized in juvenile delinquency and municipal social services.