The tone is set. Faced with juvenile delinquency "we cannot remain idly", said this Friday the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti, defending Gabriel Attal's proposals to "curb the violence" of part of the youth . “We must look at things lucidly: juvenile delinquency has evolved and we can no longer stand idly by,” said the Minister of Justice on RTL.
Returning to the words of the Prime Minister who affirmed that “the culture of excuses is over”, Éric Dupond-Moretti clarified that “the culture of excuses does not mean that we forget that a kid is a kid.” “We need to punish failing parents more and help overwhelmed parents more by making a real distinction between the two,” also declared the Minister of Justice.
“A real consultation” on the minority excuse
He specified that 50,000 boarding places were “available” to allow adolescents to “extract them from an environment which can be criminogenic”. To supervise these adolescents “we will have soldiers, police officers, gendarmes, educational and judicial protection of youth” listed Éric Dupond-Moretti, speaking of a “benevolent authority”. It’s about “giving a helping hand” to “overwhelmed mothers”, he summarized.
Regarding a possible "attenuation" of the "minority excuse", a legal principle which means that a minor aged 16 to 18 is punished less severely than an adult, Éric Dupond-Moretti stressed that the government wanted “a real consultation” on the subject which would not “be a joke”. “Nothing is excluded, everything is on the table,” he said.
Éric Dupond-Moretti also announced that a circular to recognize as an aggravating circumstance the fact of attacking a person due to non-respect of religious principles “will be released in the coming hours”.