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Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos del Principado de Asturias).
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Psicothema, 2010. Vol. Vol. 22 (nº 4). 865-871




La valoración social de la Ley de Responsabilidad Penal de los Menores

Mª Dolores García, Eduardo Martín, Ángela Torbay y Carmen Rodríguez

Universidad de La Laguna

La entrada en vigor de la Ley Orgánica 5/2000, reguladora de la Responsabilidad Penal de los Menores, ha supuesto un cambio en la intervención que se desarrolla con los menores infractores, en el sentido de que se promueve la finalidad educativa y reparadora de las medidas. No obstante, la focalización de los medios de comunicación en los casos más graves ha generado una considerable alarma social. El objetivo de este trabajo es conocer la valoración social de la Ley 5/2000. Para ello, se encuestó a una muestra de 936 personas en la comunidad autónoma de Canarias. Los principales resultados indican que existe un gran desconocimiento de la Ley, y que se tiende a pensar que las medidas que se toman no son tan efectivas como manifiestan los estudios realizados al respecto. No obstante, los encuestados se muestran más favorables a las medidas de tipo educativo que a las sancionadoras. Estos resultados se discuten en función de la importancia que los factores comunitarios tienen en el abordaje de la delincuencia juvenil, concretamente en su poder de presión social para modificar la legislación, y en la asunción de responsabilidad por parte de la comunidad en la reinserción de los menores infractores.

Social perception of the Spanish law for young offenders. The implementation of the law 5/2000 for the regulation of Criminal Responsibility for Minors has led to a change in interventions in cases of juvenile offenders. This law promotes the educational and rehabilitative aims of the measures imposed. However, the focus of the media on the most serious cases has generated considerable alarm in society in general. The aim of this study is to determine the social perception of Law 5/2000. For this purpose, a sample of 936 people from the Autonomous Region of the Canary Islands was surveyed. The main results indicate that there is a significant lack of knowledge about the law and that people tend to think that the measures taken are not as effective as studies carried out in connection with this subject have shown. Nevertheless, the people surveyed are more in favour of educational measures than of measures that penalize. These results are discussed in connection with the importance that community factors have in dealing with juvenile delinquency, and in particular, in the power of social pressure to modify legislation, and of the community to assume responsibility for the reinsertion of juvenile offenders.

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Impact factor 2022:  JCR WOS 2022:  FI = 3.6 (Q2);  JCI = 1.21 (Q1) / SCOPUS 2022:  SJR = 1.097;  CiteScore = 6.4 (Q1)