Abstract:
According to article 27 of the Penal Code, minors under 18 years of age are criminally non-imputable, subject to the rules established in the special legislation. The Magna Carta, in its article 228, replicating the Penal Code, states that minors under 18 years of age are criminally ineligible, and they are subject to the rules of special legislation. It is extremely important to consider aspects such as psychological maturity when judging the offense, as this involves knowing how to discern the appropriate time and place to behave and understand when to act, according to the circumstances and culture of the society in which one lives. Therefore, the objective of this research was to investigate whether 16-year-old adolescents have psychological maturity to be held responsible for criminal behavior. The problem question of this research was. It was concluded that 16-year-olds do not have the psychological maturity to be held responsible for criminal attitudes, because in adolescence there are cognitive limitations and emotional immaturity, which justifies the impossibility of reducing the penal age.
