Judge Who Suspended Buenos Aires Youth Criminal Code Says It Will Not Create More Security

Judge Marta Pascual has defended her decision to suspend Argentina's new juvenile criminal regime in Buenos Aires province for 60 days, insisting that the measure is about security as well as adolescent rights. "With this law we are not going to create more security," she said.

Pascual, who heads the Juvenile Criminal Responsibility Court No. 2 in Lomas de Zamora, issued the ruling after deciding a collective preventive habeas corpus petition filed on Aug. 31 by Gabriela Salicio, representing an organization within the Federación de Familia Grande Hogar de Cristo.

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With this law we are not going to create more security.

She argued that the law would not benefit either the community or young people if authorities lacked the mechanisms needed to carry out its measures. A minor held without education, vocational training or therapy could reach adulthood and enter a prison system that, she said, functions as a school for crime. "Overcrowding minors, sooner or later, increases levels of insecurity and violence," Pascual wrote in her ruling.

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I don't romanticize children who go out carrying a gun.

The judge said her responsibility had two sides: listening to victims and trying to return young people to society without the aggression that confinement can intensify. She also rejected criticism that her position was permissive. "I am a guarantist. I follow the law, and beyond the law, I want security. I have children, I walk all day through the suburbs and I want to live peacefully," she said.

Law 27.801, approved by Congress on Feb. 28, entered into force on Saturday. The government regulated the new regime on Monday. It lowers the age of criminal responsibility, establishes new penalties for minors and assigns the National Ministry of Justice as the authority responsible for implementation at the national and federal levels. The law also provides for adolescent monitoring, victim assistance and coordination with the provinces.

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Overcrowding minors, sooner or later, increases levels of insecurity and violence.

"I don't romanticize children who go out carrying a gun," Pascual said. She previously served as Buenos Aires province's minister of Family and Human Development and chaired its Provincial Council for Minors.

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I am a guarantist. I follow the law, and beyond the law, I want security. I have children, I walk all day through the suburbs and I want to live peacefully.