A generally accepted position regarding the treatment of juveniles in penal law is that because of their youth, immaturity and vulnerability different starting points apply to them compared to adult perpetrators. Emphasis is placed on the rights, benefits and interests of the juvenile, as well as on re-education and more humane attitude of treating juvenile perpetrators of criminal acts and offences. In the past century different approaches to the treatment of juveniles have been developed, with the central approaches being a protective one, which puts the juvenile's benefits and his re-education in the forefront, and a just model, which emphasizes the rights of the juvenile and the punitive approach, in the recent decades a model of restorative justice, the basic characteristic of which is the focus on the need of the community, the victims and the reparation of damage. These approaches are followed also by the international recommendations and guidelines of the United Nations and the Council of Europe, which, despite their non-binding legal nature, have a major impact on the development of juvenile penal law. In my master thesis, I tested through the analysis of the international and national system of sanctions imposed on juveniles and through the statistical analysis the following hypothesis: the Slovenian regulation of the treatment of juvenile perpetrators of criminal acts and offences follows the international documents on the purpose of sanctioning and the sanction system and does not require substantial changes, which would interfere with its fundamental characteristics. I can conclude that the Slovenian system of sanctions is essentially in line with international regulation and in the future however it will be necessary to strive for greater individualization of measures, eliminating difficulties in the implementation of certain sanctions and greater specialization of all those involved in the procedure against a juvenile.
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