Lawmaker Angela Leong has proposed that the age of criminal responsibility in Macau be lowered to 12 years old. The proposal was made during the plenary session at the Legislative Assembly on Monday, in which the Policy Address for 2021 for the sectorial area of Security was debated.
According to the lawmaker, “There is a generalization of juvenile criminality in Macau” that must be stopped through heavy penalties for the crimes perpetrated by youngsters, and reducing the age of accountability.
A new draft amendment to mainland’s Criminal Law, which is based on the same proposal, stipulates that any person aged above 12 and below 14 who commits the crime of intentional homicide or intentional injury causing someone’s death shall be subject to criminal responsibility upon approval by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
In practical terms, the amendment lowers the current criminal liability age of 14 to 12 in special situations involving violent crimes.
At the plenary, Leong proposed to the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, an adoption of a similar method to lower the criminal responsibility age to 12 years old as a way to help families to control youngsters’ behavior. She asked, “Will the government reduce the age [of criminal responsibility] in Macau also? Our Penal Code is very outdated on this matter and the penalties for the crimes committed by the youngsters are very light and are usually just to visit some rehabilitation center, which does not produce enough of a deterrent effect.”
Replying to the proposal, Secretary Wong refuted the Leong’s claims, saying, “The reduction of the criminal responsibility age to 12 years old is a policy from the Central Government that is applied in the mainland. This is a policy not under our scope. Besides, we don’t think there is such a problem here [in Macau].” He went on to note that there is no record of such crimes committed in Macau by young teenagers.
“We don’t think we need to reduce our criminal responsibility age. Education is far more important. Our goal is to heal the people [that have committed a crime] for society,” Wong reaffirmed, adding that taking care of the younger generation “is a work of all society and all society must help.”
The Secretary also noted that Macau has already a mechanism under which, when unlawful activities occur involving young people (between 12 and 16 years old), there is a follow up process with the individual’s family to understand the problem and prevent those youngsters from continuing to commit such acts. Wong promised to continue following the policy.
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