Best interest of the child in the criminal sphere: a case study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66744/twenkg82Keywords:
childhood, criminal law, protection, foster care, prisonAbstract
The objective of this study is to present a complex case study involving both criminal and childhood and adolescent jurisdictions in Paraguay, in which a woman—charged with murdering one of her children and attempting to murder the other—was deprived of liberty while pregnant. The research employs a qualitative approach, documentary type, and a non-experimental design, with descriptive and explanatory scope through a case study, utilizing dogmatic, jurisprudential, and documentary analysis of direct institutional sources, based on the authors' intervention as state actors/representatives. The coordinated intervention of the criminal justice system and the child protection system made it possible to guarantee the protection of the surviving child and the unborn child, through inclusion in the National Alternative Care and Adoption Program "Guardianship Families”, under the protection of the best interest principle. The legal, constitutional, and ethical grounds that guided the decision to maintain pretrial detention of the mother are analyzed, as well as the alternative care measures adopted, in accordance with the National Constitution, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Criminal Execution Code, the Childhood and Adolescence Code, and Law No. 6486/20 on the right to live in a family and alternative care. The importance of the Alternative Care and Adoption Program of the Ministry of Childhood and Adolescence is highlighted. The case sets a precedent by weighing the protection of life and the best interest of the child against the procedural and penitentiary literalness of criminal law.
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