Minister unveils legal reforms to combat youth violence
Deputy Justice Minister Ioannis Bougas outlined the government’s legal reforms on Tuesday aimed at addressing a surge in youth violence, including tougher penalties for parents who neglect the supervision of their minors.
“We must act on multiple fronts before this behavior escalates and harms society,” Bougas told public radio ERT.
The reforms, he said, focus on three key areas: imposing tougher penalties under the penal code for minors and their guardians; amending civil law to ensure compensation for victims; and implementing stricter disciplinary measures in schools for rule violations.
Currently, legal guardians can face up to one year in prison for neglect, while parents can face up to two years. The new law will raise the minimum sentence to one year for guardians and two years for parents, with a maximum penalty of five years. Furthermore, if a minor commits a crime that would be classified as a felony for an adult, parents and guardians will face fines starting at 10,000 euros, according to Bougas.
Minors under 12 will not be held legally responsible, while those aged 12 to 15 may be subject to reformatory or therapeutic measures if mental health issues are diagnosed. The new penal code includes a range of reformatory options, with the most severe being admission to a reformatory center.
Minors over 15 can face criminal charges up to the misdemeanor level, with potential sentences of up to five years in a juvenile detention center.
Bougas emphasized that the goal of these reforms is not to instill fear, but to bring “reason to the individual minor offender.”
