Legislation distinguishes between:
-
Young people below the age of 15
-
Young people between the ages of
15 and 18
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Young people above the age of 18
Young People Below
the Age of 15
In Denmark,
the age of criminal liability is 15. What this means is that young
people below the age of 15 may not be punished or arrested for
criminal activity. They may, however, still be questioned by police
investigating a criminal act – and trying to bring to light, for
instance, whether others were involved in its commission. Police will
hand over the case to the social services authority, and they
will contact the family of the offender, and decide what should be
done with him/her.
Young
people between the ages of 15 and 18
When a person
between the ages of 15 and 18 commits a crime, for instance theft,
handling of stolen goods, fraud, robbery, assault and battery, rape,
or murder, he/she is liable to be punished. Friends, who have some
involvement in the commission of the crime – like offering advice
on how to go about the crime, or acting as look-outs – are liable
to be punished for complicity. A “failed” attempt to commit a
crime is likewise punishable.
In the following,
we take a closer look at the procedures when young people between the
ages of 15 and 18 get mixed up in criminal activities. Topics treated
include:
-
How will the
interrogation be conducted?
-
Who may be
remanded in custody?
-
What happens
at trial?
-
What
authorities are involved?
Interrogation
by the Police
The police are
charged with investigating and solving crimes. The young delinquent
will be questioned by police as part of their investigative efforts.
Police
must notify parents as well as social services (the municipal
authority), and the police decide whether they will allow parents to
be present during the interrogation. A representative from social
services (retsrepræsentant) must
be present during the interrogation. It is the duty of the social
services representative to:
-
support the
young person being interrogated, and ensure that he/she is treated
fairly and correctly.
-
inform family
members.
-
counsel the
offender and his/her family after the interrogation.
-
notify and
communicate with the family's case worker concerning the
interrogation.
The social services representative
must take no part in the questioning, and must remain impartial at
all times.
In conjunction
with the young offender and his/her parents, the municipal social
services department will seek to establish how best to support the
offender, and prevent the commission of further crimes. Actions taken
may include:
-
finding
leisure activities for the juvenile delinquent.
-
counselling
or family therapy in order to resolve problems between the youth and
his/her parents.
-
finding a
school that better suits the needs of the youth.
-
individual
support. E.g. personal counselling or a regular supportive person.
Individual counsellors may also prepare statements regarding the
current situation of the offender, to be used in court.
Social services
will likewise assess whether action plan might be expedient.
Social
services must come up
with an action plan for young people who have been convicted of
assault and battery or other serious offences.
The
crime prevention department of the police force may contact the young
offender and his/her family at a later date. The crime prevention
department is not involved in the investigation of present crimes,
but are must attempt to prevent future criminal activity on the part
of the offender.
Preliminary
hearing (Grundlovsforhør)
If the police request that the
offender be remanded to pre-trial confinement, he/she must be given a
preliminary hearing before a judge within 24 hours of being arrested.
The judge will decide whether the offender should be released pending
trial, or whether there are grounds for pre-trial confinement. If the
police after making the arrest deem that there is no basis for
pre-trial confinement, the young offender will be released following
interrogation.
Pre-Trial
Confinement
The young offender may be held in
pre-trial confinement if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that
he/she has committed a crime, and he/she:
-
is a flight risk, or
-
there are founded suspicions
that he/she will commit further crimes if released pending trial, or
-
there are founded suspicions
that the young offender will interfere with police investigation of
the case, for instance by seeking to influence or tamper with
witnesses.
Furthermore, the young offender
may be held in pre-trial confinement if probable cause can be shown
that he/she has committed crimes of a serious nature, particularly
violent crimes. In cases where release is deemed to be patently
unreasonable with respect to victims and society in general – in
other words, where a release would grossly violate the sense of
justice and jeopardize the enforcement of the law – an offender may
be held in pre-trial confinement.
Young people, below the age of
18, are not to be confined with adult prisoners, and are therefore
remanded to so-called “surrogate confinement” (fængselssurrogat)
in the locked wards of institutions dealing exclusively with young
prisoners.
Investigation
If the young offender does not
confess:
If
the young offender does not confess, the investigation may drag on
for a long time, since the police will have to collect evidence,
interview witnesses, and so on. During this time, the youth will
remain a suspect.
If
the suspicions are well-founded, the police may decide to press
charges.
The
police will obtain personal information about the young offender from
the social services department, and in some cases, a written report
of a defendant's educational, criminal, family and social background
may be prepared for aid in sentencing.
Once
the investigation comes to a close, the police legal team will decide
how they wish to pursue the matter, and assess the chance that the
young offender will be sentenced in court. If police lawyers
determine that the evidence is insufficient to obtain a conviction,
the case will be dropped, e.g. due to a lack of evidence. If,
however, the police lawyers determine that the evidence is sound, and
that the chance of conviction in court is high, an indictment will be
prepared, and the case will be taken to trial. The young offender is
now indicted.
If the young offender
confesses:
If
the young offender confesses during the interrogation, the case may
(in some, less serious, instances) be decided by the prosecuting
authority or the chief of police, while cases involving crimes of a
serious nature, or cases where there is no admission of guilt, will
be decided by the courts.
Trial
Most
cases involving assault and battery, theft, destruction of property,
etc. are brought before the municipal court (Byretten). The court
will notify the youth – and parents when the accused is below the
age of 18 – of where and when he/she is due to stand trial. A
public defender will be appointed to the accused in a number of
situations. For instance if:
-
The
case is to be heard by a court comprised of one professional judge,
and two lay judges (ordinary citizens). This is the case if the
offender denies culpability.
-
The
crime in question is of a nature that may entail a higher penalty
than a fine.
The
trial is conducted in a formal and polite manner, and the court will
rise when the judge enters the courtroom. Social services will always
be present at the trial.
If
the accused youth pleads not guilty, the case will be tried before a
court and lay judges, unless of a petty nature. The accused youngster
is heard first. Next, witnesses – if any – are heard, and
subsequently any evidence is brought before the court. Lastly, the
prosecutor and the defender will deliver their closing arguments
(i.e. present their assessment of the case) and recommend to the
professional and lay judges, how they would have them find.
Hereafter, the judges retire to a sequestered location for their
deliberation (i.e. decide how to find in the case). Once the verdict
has been presented, the offender will have the opportunity to talk
with his/her defence attorney in private, and decide whether to
receive (accept) the verdict, or appeal it to the High Court
(Landsret).
If
the young offender pleads guilty to the charges, he/she will be
brought before a professional judge only. The offender will be
questioned by the prosecutor, but both the judge and the defence
attorney will have the opportunity to ask further questions for the
purpose of clarifying the sequence of events in the case.
The
judge will then decide the case, based on both its concrete
substance, decided cases, and the personal situation of the accused
young offender.
The
young offender and the prosecuting authority may both appeal the
verdict to the High Court. If they so decide, the appeal must be made
within 14 days of the judgement in Municipal Court.
Young
People Over the Age of 18
If
young people over the age of 18 break the law, they will be charged
and punished under the penal code or another penalty-incurring law.
In the case of people over
the age of 18, it is the police exclusively
that are responsible for handling the case. This means that the
municipal authority, and social services, will not be involved in the
interrogation process, just as police are no longer required to
notify parents. With respects to preliminary hearing, investigation,
and trial, the procedure remains as outlined in the above.
Article written by Anne Mette Engelbrecht
Translated from
the original Danish
