RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN JUVENILE CRIMINAL LAW AND THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLE

Abstract

Contextualization of the theme: in the current reality in which the crisis of legitimacy of juvenile penal intervention coexists with the mass incarceration of young people, the question was asked whether deprivation of liberty is, in fact, the only possible answer. It was out of this critical reflection that the interest in the study of restorative practices as a tool for conflict resolution arose.

Objectives: to analyze whether the application of restorative justice practices in juvenile criminal law has the potential to generate decriminalizing or harm-reducing effects, thus making it compatible with a guaranteeist and proportional juvenile criminal law.

Methodology: the deductive dialectical method was used, drawing a critical comparison between the elements extracted from the bibliographic review.

Results: it was found that the interpretation of the educational principle that is considered adequate for a guaranteeist and proportional juvenile criminal law is one that visualizes in it grounds for the decriminalization of adolescents in conflict with the law or, alternatively, justification for mitigating the harmful effects of criminalization, where this is inevitable. It was also found that there is full compatibility between the foundations of restorative intervention and the aforementioned approach to the socio-educational principle, because restorative justice values ​​subjectivity and contributes to decriminalization and, secondarily, to attenuating the harmful effects of criminalization. Restorative justice can be applied both in advance of possible criminal liability, and concomitantly with the execution of the sanction applied at the end of the phase of accountability of the adolescent.