According to the Albanian legislation, the term ?juvenile? refers to any citizens, who have not reached the age of 18. For purposes of the criminal law, the minimum age for criminal liability is fourteen, while for criminal contraventions sixteen. It is the judge?s discretion to decide where juvenile offenders are to serve their sentence, whether it is in one of the institutions, where criminal sentences are served, or an institution for juvenile re-education.
Sentences for criminal offenders, who have not reached the age of 18 by the time they are sentenced by the court, may not be longer than the sentence normally foreseen for the respective crime. The Albanian criminal legislation exempts also juvenile criminal offenders from life imprisonment. According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, juvenile defendants are also provided with legal and psychological aid at every stage and sentence of their adjudication. When a defendant is a juvenile, the court makes sure that his/her education process is not interrupted. Actually, the court must enable juvenile defendants to attend their school education.
During 2005-2015, the criminal court punished 5696 juvenile offenders, with 2012 being the year with the highest number (883 cases). The average number of criminal offenders punished per year is 570. The number of criminal offences during this period (4,886) is higher than that of the criminal contraventions (810).
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
Juvenile offenders are sentenced for a wide range of criminal offences, such as murder, injury, illegal possession of weapons, sexual crimes, violation of traffic rules, production and trade of narcotic substances, etc.
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
The statistical data show that the most frequent crime among juvenile offenders during this decade (2005-2015) is theft (Article 134, first paragraph) with 1,118 offenders and theft by collusion (Article 134, second paragraph) with 2,532 offenders. Sentences for theft (first paragraph) marked the highest number of juvenile offenders in 2011 (147), while the highest number of offenders for theft by collusion (454) was recorded in 2012.
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
Crime against life and health has also involved a relatively high number of juvenile offenders. Thus, there have been 82 sentences for serious intentional injury and minor intentional injuries involving 58 offenders.
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
Other criminal offences, which are not usually perceived as common among juveniles, but which have, nevertheless, involved juvenile offenders during the same period, include forgery of health documents (31 offenders), and illegal crossing of border (73 offenders). Figures pertaining to criminal offences that pose a high risk to the society such as illegal possession of weapons (232 offenders), production and selling of narcotic substances (99 offenders), driving while inebriated with 319 juvenile offenders, and the violation of the traffic rules (64 offenders), are also concerning.
Criminal Juvenile Offenders 2005-2015
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
The exercising of prostitution is a criminal offence, which has involved 11 cases of juvenile offenders in these 10 years. In fact, the exercising of prostitution in cases of juveniles is a criminal offence, where the juvenile offender is at the same time a victim. Domestic violence, on the other hand, introduced as a crime in the Criminal Code for the first time in 2012, has involved 23 cases, where the juvenile offenders have been active subjects.
The sanction that is massively applied by the Albanian Court for criminal offences committed by juveniles is imprisonment of up to 2 years. In 2015 only, the court sentenced 372 juvenile offenders up to 2 years each. Sentences of 10 up to 25 years of imprisonment are less applied. Such sentences were given for only 10 juvenile offenders over the last ten years.
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
Out of 5696 juvenile offenders sentenced in this decade, 428 had not completed the mandatory education level. The ratio between criminality and illiteracy does not seem to be very relevant, for as long as it is often juvenile offenders, who are already part of the education institutions, who commit crimes.
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
During 2005-2015, the Court has found 25 juveniles innocent, causing them emotional, social, education, and economic costs during the adjudication process. In these ten years, the court has suspended 128 court proceedings, where the defendants have been juveniles.
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
Criminality among juveniles marks quite a dynamic ratio versus criminality in total. In 2012, juvenile offenders represented 10% of the total, making the crime situation quite problematic for that year. The ratio between juvenile and adult offenders varies from 3 up to 19 per cent in different years.
Source: Annual Statistics of Ministry of Justice (2005-2015)
Comment: ODA
Juvenile criminality and the relevant criminal policies require special attention to be paid to various areas, such as criminal policies, teaching, sociology, etc. Such a significant level of criminality among juveniles is an indication of a social and economic crisis of the society, as well as lack of efficient education and child raising systems.