Chile moves to tighten penalties for adolescent offenders in new law proposal

Following the fatal stabbing of a 12‑year‑old in San Bernardo, Chilean lawmakers have accelerated discussion of a reform to the Adolescent Criminal Responsibility Law. The proposal would allow 16‑ and 17‑year‑olds who commit especially grave crimes such as homicide, kidnapping with homicide, or murder of police officers to be tried under the adult criminal code. It also seeks to introduce recidivism and repeat offenses as aggravating factors, toughen conditions of closed‑regime detention, and raise maximum penalties for offenders aged 14 to 16. The reform does not change the age of criminal responsibility, which remains set at 14, with an upper limit of 18.

Legal scholars Alejandro Leiva of Universidad Andrés Bello and Felipe Lizama of Universidad de Santiago explained that the aim is to increase the maximum sanctions applicable to minors while keeping the overall age thresholds unchanged.