Publicación:

Falta de centro de atención especializada en el Distrito Judicial de Santa Marta. Vulneración a los derechos del menor infractor privado de la libertad.

Resumen

On January 1 of 2009 the of the system of criminal responsibility for adolescents developed by the 1098 Law of 2008 began to be implemented, in Magdalena the number of children in conflict with the system per year given by the Colombian Family Welfare Institute was: 108 cases in 2009, 145 in 2010, 130 in 2011 and 142 in 2012. Approximately 15% of the 102 cases of punishment were referred to specialized care centers since the system started to apply.The problem is that the city of Santa Marta does not have a specialized center for juvenile offenders to be interned, so they have to be sent to other centers in different cities, according to availability. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine if the described problems represent a violation of the adolescent’s rights and legal guarantees. First, rights and international and domestic protection of children and adolescents was identified; then, the system of criminal responsibility applied to adolescents in Colombia was described; and finally it was examined whether the rights of juvenile offenders are violated due to the lack of a specialized care.