Age as a Problematic and Problematized Issue of Criminal Responsibility

The article deals with young people as they are depicted in discussions on "youth delinquency" and "juvenile justice". I focus on the political discourse (as represented by debates taking place within the Parliament in 1930–2009) and the expert discourse (as represented by academic texts on the subject from the same time period). I tried to solve one paradox which motivated my research: Why was the time period of relative toughening of penal policy when, according to public opinion polls, a substantial majority of Czech adults favoured the decreasing of the minimum age of criminal responsibility and such an amendment was actually repeatedly proposed in the legislature, marked by consistent victories of the approach to juvenile persons which prefers care, education and therapy instead of punishment?