Slovenia

Abstract

The Slovenian juvenile justice system has for the most part resisted modern punitive trends in dealing with juvenile offenders. The welfarist tradition remains strong, even though dealing with adult offenders has taken a more punitive route. Slovenia has experienced a steady decline of recorded juvenile crime. Most offences (about 60 %) fall into the category of property crimes, and the proportion of violent crimes have been dropping steadily and now amount to about 6 % of all juvenile crime. The age of criminal responsibility is set at 14 years of age. There are no separate courts for juvenile offenders; they are tried at regular courts by specialized juvenile judges. In practice, generally less than a third of juvenile cases, reported to the police, end up with a court-imposed sanction. The reason for the stark difference is the options that the prosecutors and juvenile judges may dismiss the case because of the expediency principle or to refer it to mediation or other forms of diversion. The court cannot apply the procedure for adult offenders and cannot impose the sanctions for adults, notwithstanding the severity of the committed crime. In about 98 % of all juvenile cases, an educational measure is chosen as the appropriate sanction. When deciding on which of the six educational measures to apply, the only criterion for the court is the juvenile offender’s resocialization and in no way the seriousness of the offence. Imprisonment is extremely rare for juveniles; less than 2 % of offenders are sentenced to juvenile imprisonment.