The causality for murder acts committed by underage persons

• Author: Ioan Ilea - Gabriel Tica - Dan Lele
• Position: Candidate to PhD - Candidate to PhD - Candidate to PhD - Ministry of Justice, National Administration of Penitentiaries, High Security Penitentiary Oradea
• Pages: 115-133

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THE CAUSALITY FOR MURDER ACTS

COMMITTED BY UNDERAGE PERSONS

Candidate to PhD Ioan Ilea

Candidate to PhD Gabriel Xica

Candidate to PhD Dan Lele

Ministry of Justice

National Administration of Penitentiaries

High Security Penitentiary Oradea

Abstract:

This paper aims to emphasize the social causes that bring about the

delinquent evolution of underage persons who have committed an act of murder

and are imprisoned in Romanian penitentiaries. Our purpose is to highlight these

causes through the corroboration of three research techniques: the case study, the

semi-structured interview, and the analysis of documents. Once the causes that

bring about the starting of the delinquent behaviour have been identified, the paper

continues with our conclusions and suggestions concerning modalities of

preventing the criminal acts committed by minors.

Key words: family, friends, school, alcohol.

1. Introduction

The criminal acts committed by underage persons represents a central

preoccupation for society, with the declared aim of understanding and preventing

them. In this respect, the prevention and the treatment of this kind of delinquency

are considered priorities for the actions that are related to the penal and the social

politics of the state.

The research theme aims to highlight the aspects that characterise the

delinquent aetiology of underage persons that have committed a murder act and

who serve their sentence in Romanian penitentiaries..

The reasons that urged us to start this research are the following: the

absence of similar pieces of research concerning underage persons, the high

incidence of this kind of delinquency, committed by underage persons; the severity

of such an action; the more difficult social recovery of such underage persons

because of the way they are “labelled”, as well as the quantum of punishment.

The level of common knowledge is insufficient for the approach to such a

phenomenon, which brings about a severe disturbance in the social order. For this

reason, a scientific, strict approach is highly ne cessary, especially from the

methodological point of view, for a phenomenon such as this one, characterised by

complexity, diversity and specificity.

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2. The Objectives of the research

The aim of the research is two-fold: on the one hand, we try to disclose

those malfunctions that can be identified at the level of the social background and

of the delinquent’s personality, which bring about the act of committing the crime;

on the other hand, we aim to set up some conclusions and suggestions that might be

used with the view of preventing such anti-social acts.

We have grouped our objectives in two categories: general and specific.

The general, ones are broader in character and refer to the sketching of an image

concerning the way in which underage persons act in the situations we analyse; the

understanding of social mechanisms that contribute to the performance of such

anti-social acts. The specific objectives aim to provide information that is more

restricted in character, by which we mean: getting information concerning the

situations in which the crimes have been committed; the description of the potential

factors that brought about the crime: the situation in the criminal’s family, the

person’s previous delinquent acts, his or her level of education, his or her

qualification, professional or leisure activities, etc.

3. The Theoretical Underpinning

A large number of specialists and researchers, especially from the field of

sociology, psychology, or criminology have approached the subject of causes for

the delinquency of underage persons, without managing to formulate a unitary and

consensual explicative theory. Some of them considered the psychological factors

to be the crucial ones, while others insisted on factors of social nature. Each

scientific discipline tried to explain the nature of deviance by means of its own

theories, leaving aside the arguments of researchers from other fields. In the last

decades, the theoretical discussions, known as theories of „multiple” causality,

start from the premise that all factors (be they social, psychological or biological)

have a higher or a lesser importance in bringing about criminal acts. They can

provide a richer and more explicit etiological analysis of criminal delinquency in

the case of underage persons.

In terms of risk factors that intervene in the initiation of underage

delinquent behaviour, most specialists mention: „differences in terms of gender

(boys are more prone than girls to commit criminal acts), age (the instances of

aggressive behaviour can be identified towards the end of adolescence and the

beginning of adult life; the delinquent tends to kill or attack victims of similar age,

sex, and social background), family (the absence of supervision, or the single-

parent family can create the circumstances for the appearance of anti-social acts),

the group of friends, the gangs of delinquents (where the criminal techniques are

assimilated), the school, the drug consumption, the mass-media or the

unemployment”.1 There are some opinions according to which „the main reasons

that bring about the appearance of the underage delinquency are: the high level of

1 Ion Vldu, Evaluarea fenomenului de delincvenY< juvenil<, University course, Bucureşti, 2005, pp. 23-33.