Age and deaf mutism as grounds for exemption and mitigation of punishment under the Maltese criminal code : a time for serious reform?

Abstract

Age and deaf mutism are both grounds under which a person can be exempted from his criminal punishment or else have his punishment reduced. This is because the Maltese Criminal Code, like other foreign Criminal Codes, has held that such categories of persons require special and preferential treatment due to the presence of particular circumstances justifying such treatment. Under both age and deaf mutism, it is the age of the person which classifies which circumstances are applicable. For example, minors under the age of nine years are exempt from any criminal responsibility whilst deaf mutes under the age of fourteen years enjoy the same treatment. Therefore, to some extent, one could say that there is a certain amount of parallelism between the law of minors and that regulating deaf mutes, since both are treated under the Maltese CriminalCode as having a defect in their intellectual; capacity and development and therefore justifying a reduction or exemption of the criminal punishment normally attributed to the offence committed. While emphasizing that imprisonment should never be imposed on juveniles and young offenders, it is of utmost importance that such offenders are made aware of their wrong doing and of the damage they did to society. This may be done in various ways, such as the introduction of open centres which cater for young offenders depending on the offence committed and their respective ages or else through a wider application of community service orders; particularly through work that remedies the harm done both to society as a whole or to a particular person or group of persons. A healthy juvenile justice system does not necessarily mean the total elimination of offending by young persons but rather having an efficient and effective system to tackle and rehabilitate such offenders.