Could 13-year-olds face criminal charges in Czechia? Ministry weighs change

Children as young as 13 could become criminally responsible for murder and other exceptionally serious offenses under a proposal being considered by Czech Justice Minister Jeroným Tejc.

Czech criminal responsibility currently begins at 15. Tejc said Wednesday that leaving the system unchanged was not acceptable, citing a new ministry analysis that points to growing aggression and brutality in some crimes involving children.

No legislation has yet been drafted, and any proposal would be submitted in summer 2027 at the earliest. The governing coalition currently favors lowering the threshold only for selected serious crimes rather than applying it to every offense, Tejc said.

One option is to reduce the general age of criminal responsibility to 13 or 14. Tejc cautioned that this would bring children into criminal proceedings for relatively minor offenses, placing additional pressure on courts and related services.

The government is therefore leaning toward a limited model covering crimes of exceptional severity, potentially including those for which adults can receive exceptional sentences. Murder would be a typical example.

Tejc stressed that the aim would not be to place 13- or 14-year-olds in ordinary prisons. The state would instead need specialized, secure facilities for small groups of young offenders, with intensive psychological, therapeutic and educational support.

Children under 15 currently cannot be prosecuted or convicted. Courts can nevertheless order measures including probation supervision, educational programs, protective treatment or protective education. The last of these, the most restrictive option, was imposed in 29 cases last year.

The ministry also wants children placed in institutions because they committed serious acts separated from those living there for unrelated reasons, such as the death or loss of their parents.

The ministry’s data does not show a dramatic rise in overall youth crime. Among children under 15, the number of robbery cases handled by criminal justice authorities rose from 118 in 2015 to 223 in 2025, while recorded blackmail cases increased from 60 to 107.

Reported rape cases involving under-15s rose from 21 to 48 over the same period. Six murder cases were recorded in 2025, the same number as in 2022 and 2024. Bodily injury cases, meanwhile, declined from 108 in 2015 to 96 last year.

Tejc said the absence of a major increase in total crime did not resolve concerns about the severity of individual incidents.

The Committee on Victims’ Rights of the Government Council for Human Rights opposes lowering the age. It said available research does not clearly demonstrate that violent acts committed by children have become more severe and argued that prevention and rehabilitation would be more effective.

The committee also warned that Czechia already lacks child psychologists, psychiatrists and follow-up services for young offenders.

Its members called for coordinated preventive work and stronger rehabilitation programs rather than an expansion of criminal liability. Tejc’s proposal would therefore require not only a change to criminal law, but also investment in specialized facilities and staff capable of working with very young offenders.