Between the “Century ofthe Child” and juveniledelinquency. Minority as a problem in Uruguay

Abstract

The present article aims to discuss the existence in Uruguay of an idealized past used as a basis for justifying the need for harsher punitive measures to minors.Particularly, the modification of the criminal treatment of children focused on the low age of imputability whose main promoters pointed in 2014 to a set of criminal phenomena presented as unpublished and unprecedented. The vagueness of the historical references makes it possible to identify a key moment in the treatment of minors during the beginning of the last century. That same period was identified as The Century of the Child by many reformers, also considered an age of changes and evolution of some criminal characteristics. Through the popular press analysis, the concern about the growth of that certain type of juvenile crime was real and verifiable. The voices of alarm would be accompanied by references to new criminal characteristics in which they would have an inescapable type of conduct, the common one was early child participation.Consequently, far from idealization, the image of a crime free Uruguay is demystified, which serves as a strong argument for legal modifications aimed at a punitive escalation.