The coordinator of the public ministry in the matter considers that after the increase in aggressions there is an education problem
At a time when there have been several group sexual assaults committed by minors, some of them unimputable, because they are not yet 14 years old, which is when the criminal age is set in Spain, the prosecutor of the Juvenile Coordinator Room, Eduardo Esteban Rincon, receives EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA, from the Prensa Ibérica group. The person to whom the prosecutors of this specialty from all over Spain report considers that the The problem is one of education and more than accessing education too early pornography, because minors take it as a tutorial of the sexual act.
Do you think that sexual crimes committed by minors have increased?I affirm it, but not now. The sad progress has been taking place since at least 2015. It was a very slight but progressive increase. This year has been a much more considerable jump: we have gone from 668 sexual assaults to 974; we leave aside the abuses, in which the figures are maintained a little more. There may be a small trap and that is that in October sexual abuse already disappeared and what was previously abuse may be listed as assault, but the figures have increased considerably.
This year there has been quite a considerable jump: we have gone from 668 sexual assaults to 974
Is it not because we are more mentalized and more is denounced?Probably more will be reported, but I think it is that there are more crimes. There is an emulator effect on minors, which is the downside of talking so much about it. Although doing so also has positive effects, serving to educate socially.It is said that it is because they see for not too soon…I believe that not only that, that it is a reality. A criminogenic effect in this matter is pornography and the sooner the access is, the more criminogenic effect it will have, because the person is less educated. The problem with pornography and minors is that it replaces education. What is failing is not that they access pornography, but that they do not access education. There is no good sexual education either in schools, or in families, or in society. They use pornography as a kind of tutorial. Since they don’t know, since they are not explained what the sexual act is like, they go to what they know how to handle: the telephone and the computer and look for a tutorial. If they get a flat tire on their bike, they look for a tutorial on how to fix it. If they want to know how the sexual act is done, they look for a tutorial. And no one tells them that this is not reality, that it is loaded with violence, domination, that it is not correct. What is lacking is not so much early access to pornography, as access to sex education.
What is lacking is not so much early access to pornography, as access to sex education.
Do they affect the social networks?There is also a reversal of values and it has a lot to do with social networks. The data that we obtain is from what the prosecutors from all over Spain are telling us and it is striking that in many cases the definitive proof, the one that condemns them, is the recording that they themselves have made and published. And we wonder what happens with criminals, are they so foolish that they deliver the proof themselves? No, it’s that the values have changed. Right now a minor cares more about a like, being fashionable, that others see what he does, than the risk that this entails. He is aware that if he is caught they will punish him, but he does not care about that risk, because he has misrepresented the values. Above all is being famous, popular, telling what I do and having my friends applaud me because I’m a macho. And I think that also goes through education.Are there differences between autonomous communities?The differences have to do with the idiosyncrasy of the territories. In the rural world it is much more difficult for these events to occur. Not only because there are fewer technological means, but because everyone knows each other and there is another environment, although it also happens. There is another thing: these attacks, when they are minors, are not necessarily as clandestine or allegedly as clandestine as those of adults. In the world of criminal law, we have always said that these crimes are clandestine, which is why there is almost always only one piece of evidence, which is the statement of the victim, but not so much now, because it is very common for the act to occur with people who They know each other from school or whatever. A lot of the things we’re seeing right now are hang-ups, boy-group with girl-group or boy-with-girl group, and when they’re together the idea of doing what they do comes up. They are not strangers.Don’t the older ones record themselves?You already know that yes, like those of the pack [en referencia de la violación grupal que se produjo en los San Fermines de 2016]. There is also no magical leap, when you turn 18. The one who is stupid at 17 generally at 19 usually continues to be so. And I say that they are stupid, because recording and exposing it is taking a big risk. A clear example is the idiot who goes 240 km per hour and records himself. Nobody would have caught him, but since he records it and has to tell it…What happens to minors under 14 without criminal responsibility?This way of acting in a group has the consequence that the group can be varied. There have been some cases of adults and imputable and inimputable minors. Minors are unimputable in Spain up to the age of 14. From that age they already have criminal responsibility. Does this mean that for minors the State completely ignores and does not seek any response? No. What we do in a matter with inimputable persons is to bring it to the attention of the autonomous communities, which are the competent ones. The community can adopt measures to protect minors that can even go as far as internment in the most serious cases due to their behavioral problems. Before 2015 it was only for the assumption of mental illness, but not now. Obviously, whoever has committed a rape has problematic behavior and is often subjected to treatment that may entail a therapeutic hospitalization. The community can assume its guardianship. They are not forgotten.May their parents have to answer?Since they are not subjected to criminal proceedings, civil liability cannot be imposed on them in a trial like those over 14 years of age, but the Civil Code allows parents to be held accountable for the acts of their children, so they can be require through a civil proceeding.Are you in favor of lowering the criminal age?I am not a supporter. Spanish juvenile justice works very well, it has a very appropriate response. And we are having much greater successes in recovering kids than what can be had in the field of the elderly. Prisons we all know how they work. They do not have the intended effect. They do not achieve the same effects as in minors, where everything is aimed at the re-education of the minor and many successes are being achieved. Those under 14 are people with very little training in whom the fact of being minors has to prevail above all else, not the fact of being delinquents. The next step would be to lower it below 12. And the next one, well, what do I know. In the United Kingdom it is 10 years and in the US they cannot sentence minors to death, but they wait until they are older to try and sentence them.