Decriminalization; an Attitude to Prevent the Persistence of Juvenile Delinquency

The phenomenon of the stability of juvenile delinquency in the present era and the need to deal with the inflation of the criminal population has made the policymakers in the field of criminal laws to reconsider the same treatment with adults and soften the social reactions to the delinquency of this group. Based on the criminological studies, one of the main reasons for the persistence of juvenile delinquency is imprisonment, followed by the influence of the prison culture on the formation of the adolescent's personality. Changing the approach of the criminal justice system from criminalization to decriminalization makes it possible to reduce the persistence of juvenile delinquency. The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of research. Decriminalization of juvenile delinquency is a technical solution that, as a differential criminal policy, promises to reduce delinquency statistics and reductionism in the continuation of this stratum in the criminal population at the level of society and its destructive effects on social life. The absolute decriminalization of juvenile delinquency means ending the criminal justice mechanism and decriminalizing the law-breaking behavior of this group, which certainly cannot not only prevent the persistence of delinquency of this group, but also lead to its escalation. Behaviors and even the transformation of criminal behaviors from micro to macro. Iran's legislature has shown its willingness to support and be friendlier to juvenile delinquents by accepting friendly institutions such as filing of criminal case, suspension of prosecution, referral to mediation, postponement of sentencing and suspension of execution of punishment.