Imprisonment of minor offenders

Youth criminality is a constant problem which a number of specialists, legislative bodies, and the whole public deal with. A number of negative phenomenons occurring in the area of this population, e.g. spreading of drugs among younger and younger age groups and related increase of criminality undoubtedly play a leading role. However, it is known that bare repression is ineffective and means of educational activities are much more effective. Occurrence of social pathological phenomenons, their dynamics and changes are an indivisible part of the society. Grounds enabling occurrence of these phenomenons change very little. Heritability, constitutional factors, family, school, peer pressure, inappropriate spending free time as well as media influence and ethnical origin have an impact. Responsibility of the youth for unlawful acts is laid down by the Act No. 218/2003 Coll., on the Liability of Youth for Unlawful Acts and on Justice in Matters of Youth and Amending Certain Acts (Act on Justice in Matters of Youth). The purpose of the Act is defined particularly from the view of prevention of unlawful activities of the youth that is a basic group to which the attention of the whole justice and society is to be paid, so that every member of this group who committed an illegal act, no matter he is a juvenile or a child younger than fifteen years, is treated in accordance with this Act, he contributes to rectifying the injury resulting from the unlawful act within his strengths and abilities, a convenient and appropriate measure is imposed on him, and he finds a social asserting corresponding to his abilities and intellectual and moral development as a definitive result. Preventive activities aimed against youth criminality always and in the whole scope require respecting basic children rights and rights for privacy of their family. Children rights must be observed from primary to tertiary prevention, from searching threatened children and their families to treatment of guilty children. The most significant tool of social prevention is education of children in families and education of children at school. The aim of the thesis was to find out grounds leading to custodial detention of a juvenile offender and to find indications which could help to positively or negatively affect educational impact on the juvenile in the prison