New regulation on the way following the Minguzzi murder: What should be done for 'children dragged into crime'?

Hazal Güven - 12punto.com.tr

The death of 14-year-old Mattia Ahmet Minguzzi, who lost his battle for life 14 days after being wounded by his peers with a sharp object in January, has plunged Turkey into mourning. Beyond the pain of the murder itself, the fact that it was committed by minors has brought a series of debates to the forefront. 

It has been learned that a new regulation for 'children dragged into crime' will be introduced following the instructions of President Erdoğan, who met with the Minguzzi family in recent days. 

Making a statement on the subject, AKP Istanbul Deputy Müşerref Pervin Tuba Durgut said the following:

"Our President has followed this matter with great importance from the moment he heard about it. He was very saddened and shared the family's pain. Of course, our Minister of Justice also attended that meeting. In fact, the President's daughter, Esra Albayrak, has also been following the issue with great sensitivity from the very beginning. After sharing in the grief, the family specifically expressed their demands. Our term for child offenders under 18 is 'children dragged into crime,' and the enforcement system regarding them works a little differently.

However, we have experienced that the enforcement system sometimes gets stuck in cases like this, involving heinous murders that deeply wound the public conscience. Our President has given instructions regarding this. While taking preventive measures in coordination with different ministries regarding being dragged into crime, he also gave instructions to regulate the points where the enforcement system is blocked through a legal revision. We are working on this, and I hope this will be a beneficial change pioneered by Ahmet."

So, how should we approach minors described as 'children dragged into crime'? What should the punishment system be in such cases? Lawyer Çağla Gül Bulut explained to 12punto. 

'THESE CHILDREN ARE ALSO VICTIMS OF THE SYSTEM FIRST AND FOREMOST'

"Unfortunately, the murder of Ahmet Minguzzi by his peers around the age of 16 has led us all to think about this issue. We need to talk about why we call these children 'children dragged into crime.' These children have been dragged into and pushed toward crime. There are reasons behind their involvement in crime. These children are also victims. Because when we look at the stories of these children, the reasons for them being dragged into crime are poverty, neglect, and abuse. Disconnection, indifference, and lack of love in their families are influential. Their culture is a cause. Therefore, these children are also children who have been victimized by the system in the first place." 

'THEIR STORIES ARE SIMILAR'

"A child's full moral, social, physical, and psychological development must be ensured, and this is a matter that is also the state's obligation. However, primarily, this matter falls to the family. But when the family cannot provide this situation, the state must intervene there and improve the child's conditions. Here, the stories of children dragged into crime are actually similar stories. They are children of neglected, abused, poor, disconnected, and loveless families."

'JUDGING THEM LIKE ADULTS IS WRONG'

"For this reason, when we talk about regulations regarding these children, it would be very wrong and lead to irreversible consequences to remove these children from the status of a child and judge them like adults based on the nature of the crime. Currently, international conventions are also of a nature that would not allow this. Because as we said; these children are also children who are victims of the system in the first place."

'THE STATE MUST FIRST PREVENT THEM FROM GETTING INVOLVED IN CRIME'

"Here, instead of a regulation that judges children who cause someone's death in a brutal manner or are involved in a crime such as sexual assault differently, or imposes heavy prison sentences as the deputy said, it is necessary to investigate why these children dragged into crime got involved in this crime, to prevent the reasons for their involvement in this crime, and to work to prevent them from getting involved in a second crime once they are involved in the first. This matter is already a subject included in both national and international legislation. What the state needs to do is primarily to prevent the child from getting involved in crime.

When we look at the children who killed Minguzzi, we see that they have criminal records and that even their families have criminal records. The urgent solution that needs to be implemented here is to improve the causes of these children being dragged into crime and to prevent them from getting involved in crime again."

News Source : Hazal Güven