A judge urges adults to talk about bullying with teens

2023-09-06 21:11:31

The 4th Nomination Juvenile Criminal Court of the city of Córdoba considered proven the intervention of four 12-year-old adolescents in the attacks and threats suffered by a classmate who filed a criminal complaint.

Judge Nora Giraudo framed these behaviors in the crimes of repeated threats, qualified threats and minor injuries.

However, it resolved the cessation of the disposition of the girls responsible for situations of school violence (bullying) because they are non-punishable minors.

The sentence was recently confirmed by the Accusation Chamber.

What happened

According to the evidence gathered in the case, four classmates verbally assaulted the victim, pushed her, pulled her hair and one of them put a metal scissors on her neck, while they told her that they would hurt her three-year-old sister. years old if he told what happened.

Giraudo affirmed that in the particular case what happened transcended the educational field, since the victim made the complaint in a judicial unit, which enabled the competence of the court and its obligation to verify its existence and the participation of the accused (art. 1, law 22,278).

“This possible configuration of a crime, which goes beyond the domestic and the school environment, should lead to reflection, raise an alarm or a call for attention to the parents of those involved, since it was they, and not others, who were the young people reported.” emphasized.

In the first instance ruling, the magistrate urged the adults involved in the case to “promote a healthy conversation about the modalities of relating to others, in school and social life, which encourages attentive listening, in order to place oneself in the place of the other”.

He also urged them to facilitate “integration with due respect for the rights of all” and avoid “the damage caused by confrontation, with the consequent escalation of violence, between members of the same community.”

The “good victim” stereotype

Finally, the magistrate held that an alleged difference in age and physical size of the victim in relation to the girls denounced does not justify intimidating and violent behavior.

“If they present such differentiated characteristics, they do not make the victim less vulnerable emotionally and/or physically, especially if one takes into account the way in which the accused would have acted: in a group, through threats, using sharp elements, with sufficient entity to intimidate and injure her,” he remarked.

According to the ruling, holding otherwise would lead to the legal absurdity of stating that only those who have certain physical or emotional characteristics can be victims, that is, the stereotype of the “good victim” (submissive, weak, passive).