ABSTRACT
There are wide disparities in the minimum age of criminal responsibility for juveniles in different countries in Europe (see also Chapter 14, this volume). Among the forty-six countries in the Council of Europe, there are three main clusters of relevant ages. Some countries hold children criminally liable from age ten or below. These include the three UK jurisdictions and Switzerland. A second group, including France, Germany and Italy as well as the Netherlands, stipulates the minimum age at 12, 13, or 14. A third group restricts the role of the criminal justice system to young people above age 15 or even 18 (the Scandinavian countries, Spain and Belgium) (Allen, 1996).
