Colombia, Psychologists Comment on Minors’ Criminal Acts

•Recently in Colombia, a law was passed which included a new restriction that minors who committed crimes would be released on reaching 21 years of age.
•Criminals would contract minors to commit crimes such as murders because they would be release after turning 21. Thus, one of the effects of the previous penalties was that theft and murder registered to be the same in adolescent minds as the penalties were similar.
•Psychologist María Alexandra Rojas commented that the minors who commit these crimes come from backgrounds of poor family ties, which result in impulsive behavior, as well as poor economic conditions according to El Espectador.
•John Jairo Asprilla, another psychologist, comments that the minors commit these crimes in order to gain a sense of belonging that they lacked from their families.
•Luis Ramírez Ortegón states that the Colombian state should provide for the improvement of the children’s lives such as in education, health, and work for the parents.
•Although the goal is to dissuade mafias and other criminals from using children for crimes, it is against the Alliance for Colombian Childhood, which states that restrictions will not deter adolescent crime from occurring. Read Article