Special Criminal Proceedings in the Iranian Law

ommitting acts discordant to the criminal law, children and juveniles are detained and put in close contact with the disciplinary and judiciary authorities. For this reason, special criminal proceedings have great importance on achieving the eminent aim of reform and prevention of committing such criminal acts.The procedure of trial for children and juveniles is different from an adult’s tribunal in many aspects. For instance, those policemen and judges who exclusively and mostly conduct children’s trials should be completely acquainted, through educational courses specially established for them, with different sciences such as child psychology, social aid and criminology. The trial must be held behind closed doors, and the child must be respected as a person. It is necessary to provide a personality dossier containing statements from various specialists in the fields of medical sciences, psychology, social aid and criminology, beside a criminal dossier in order to give an appropriate image of the child or juvenile’s character and behavior for the courts.In the present article, the fundamental principles of special criminal proceedings for children are examined both in the common and international laws, comparing them with the established Iranian penal code. The recently proposed motion for a law on special courts for children and juveniles is also discussed. On the condition of a final ratification this motion will be a significant step toward the promotion of special proceedings for children. Apparently, the notion of special criminal proceedings for children presented in the common law is not inconsistent with the Islamic law. There is neither prohibition nor prevention in the authentic Islamic jurisprudence for applying this way of trial.