Mercurio Ezequiel, García-López Eric, Morales-Quintero Luz Anyela, Llamas Nicolás E, Marinaro José Ángel, Muñoz José M
Center of Interdisciplinary Forensic Research, Buenos Aires National Academy of Sciences, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Penales, Mexico City, Mexico.
Front Psychol. 2020 Apr 24;11:627. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00627. eCollection 2020.
In this article, we analyze the contributions of neuroscience to the development of the adolescent brain and shed additional light on the minimum age of criminal responsibility in the context of Latin America. In neurobiology, maturity is perceived to be complex because the brain's temporal development process is not uniform across all its regions. This has important consequences for adolescents' behavior; in their search for the acceptance of their peers, they are more vulnerable to pressure and more sensitive to stress than adults. Their affectivity is more unstable, and they show signs of low tolerance to frustration and important emotional reactivity, with a decrease in the capacity to self-regulate. Consequently, risky behavior presents itself more frequently during adolescence, and behaviors that transgress norms and social conventions typically peak between the ages of 17 and 19 years. However, only a small percentage of young offenders escalate their behavior to committing crimes during adulthood. In comparative law, there are considerable differences in Latin American countries' legal dispositions regarding the minimum age of criminal responsibility; Brazil, Costa Rica, and Ecuador regard the age of criminal responsibility to be 12 years, while Argentina accepts this to be 16 years. From a legal viewpoint, however, the debate about the minimum age of criminal responsibility is connected to other circumstances that, because they are still at a developmental stage, are attributed to adolescents' rights in their decision-making and understanding of autonomy (e.g., the minimum ages for voting, alcohol consumption, and medical consent). We argue that research on the development of the adolescent brain does not provide definitive answers about the exact age required for different juridical purposes. Nonetheless, the current state of knowledge does allow for reflection on the development and maturation of adolescents and the implications for considering them criminally responsible. It also validates demands for a system that provides adolescents with greater protection and that favors their healthy integral development. In any case, although a specific minimum age is not evident, this study is disposed not to recommend lowering the age of criminal responsibility, but rather increasing it.
在本文中，我们分析了神经科学对青少年大脑发育的贡献，并在拉丁美洲的背景下进一步探讨了刑事责任最低年龄的问题。在神经生物学中，成熟被认为是复杂的，因为大脑的时间发育过程在其所有区域并非一致。这对青少年的行为有重要影响；在寻求同伴认可的过程中，他们比成年人更容易受到压力影响，对压力也更敏感。他们的情感更不稳定，表现出对挫折的低耐受性和重要的情绪反应迹象，自我调节能力下降。因此，危险行为在青少年时期更频繁出现，违反规范和社会习俗的行为通常在17至19岁达到顶峰。然而，只有一小部分青少年犯罪者在成年后会升级为犯罪行为。在比较法中，拉丁美洲国家关于刑事责任最低年龄的法律规定存在相当大的差异；巴西、哥斯达黎加和厄瓜多尔将刑事责任年龄定为12岁，而阿根廷则为16岁。然而，从法律角度来看，关于刑事责任最低年龄的辩论与其他情况相关，由于青少年仍处于发育阶段，这些情况被归因于他们在决策和理解自主权方面的权利（例如投票、饮酒和医疗同意的最低年龄）。我们认为，关于青少年大脑发育的研究并不能为不同司法目的所需的确切年龄提供明确答案。尽管如此，目前的知识状态确实允许我们思考青少年的发育和成熟以及将他们视为应负刑事责任的影响。它也证实了对一个为青少年提供更大保护并有利于他们健康全面发展的系统的需求。无论如何，虽然具体的最低年龄并不明确，但本研究倾向于不建议降低刑事责任年龄，而是提高该年龄。
