Iran's Criminal Policy Towards Juvenile Offenders: A Comparative Perspective with English Law

Juvenile delinquency is one of the issues that criminal policy inevitably affects by defining and determining its specific principles. This signifies a distinct criminal policy towards juvenile offenders, as one of the bitter fruits of contemporary industrial societies is juvenile delinquency, where individuals have not yet started their social life but have been tainted by various social, cultural, political, and other factors, leading to the destruction of their lives. Dealing with juvenile crimes leads lawmakers to provide special support for them. Therefore, addressing juvenile delinquency requires the existence of a specialized judicial system distinct from the legal system for adults. A comparative study of Iran and England shows that, just as in England, children and adolescents are entitled to such support, in Iran, the necessity of reforming and educating these individuals violates the intended criminal laws, but Iran's laws do not provide a cohesive approach to protect and support children and adolescents in various stages of the legal process, especially in preliminary investigations. In contrast, England has adopted many considerations for dealing with these individuals and has provided appropriate guarantees for them. This article seeks to answer the fundamental question through a descriptive-analytical method What are the similarities and differences between Iran's criminal policy and England's criminal policy regarding juvenile delinquency? Iran should also consider the strengths and positive aspects of the changes in the laws of other countries such as England in the field of differential criminal policy towards juvenile offenders, fundamentally revising the stages of trial, prosecution, and implementation of sentences for delinquent children and adolescents, and emphasize laws on crime prevention and alternative punishments with a focus on non-repetition of offenses.