The need to embrace the concept of criminal reiteration in the adolescent criminal responsibility system

Abstract

This article refers to the factors that influence criminal repetition and recidivism in adolescents within the Colombian Criminal Responsibility System (SRPA, by its initials in Spanish). Its objective is to determine why the concept of criminal repetition in adolescents has to be assumed, instead of the classic conception of recidivism, in an adolescent penal system that is essentially restorative justice. It proposes the novel theory that reiteration cannot be considered a circumstance outside the SRPA. It highlights that knowing about the commission of perpetrated conduct or some degree of participation as author or participant, by the adolescent prior to the commission of a new criminal conduct, serves the purpose of the function of the sanction in the adolescent criminal process. Adding that, once the criminal repetition is known, the possibility of promoting the resocialising educational process by the entities responsible for the treatment of adolescents in conflict with the criminal law is expanded. Concluding that it is valid and necessary to take into account the repetition in criminal matters applied to adolescents that serves for graduation and to indicate the type of sanction to be imposed and avoiding the use of the concept of recidivism which is typical of retributive justice.