When a minor comes into conflict with the law, the institutional response often ranges from sanction to re-education. However, socio-educational intervention goes beyond both: it proposes a restorative approach, focusing on accountability, reparation of damage and social reintegration.
This article explores How to accompany these minors from a perspective that does not reduce them to their behavior, but rather recognizes them as subjects in process.
The context: adolescence, exclusion and crime
Many minors who commit offenses come from backgrounds of social exclusion, structural violence, or institutional neglect. In these cases, the crime is not only a legal violation, but also a form of expression of discomfort, anger, or the need to belong. Understanding this background is key to designing interventions that are not limited to "correcting," but transformative.
Keys to socio-educational intervention
- Individualization of the process: Every child has a unique story that must be heard and understood.
- Working with the environment: family, school, community and peer groups are part of the change process.
- Education in values and social skills: foster empathy, self-regulation, and responsible decision-making.
- Active participation of the minor: It is not about imposing a plan, but rather about building it together.
Extension: Deepening restorative justice
Restorative justice proposes a paradigm shift: instead of focusing on punishment, it focuses on the harm caused, the needs of the victims, and the responsibility of the offender.
In the case of minors, this perspective It allows for mediation processes, restorative meetings and reparative actions that promote awareness and engagement. Furthermore, this approach has a strong preventative component. By offering the minor the opportunity to repair the damage and be heard, the likelihood of reoffending is reduced.Intervention ceases to be a punitive response and becomes an opportunity for personal and social growth.
Finally, it is essential that professionals who work with these minors receive specific training in juvenile justice, mediation, and emotional support. Intervention cannot be improvised or based on intuition: it requires rigor, sensitivity, and a deep belief in each young person's capacity for change.
Intervening with minors in conflict with the law isn't about justifying their actions, but rather understanding their causes and offering alternatives. It's about promoting education, reparation, and dignity. Because every minor deserves a second chance, and society is also transformed when it decides to offer it.
Would you like to work in socio-educational intervention? We look forward to seeing you at the Postgraduate in Intervention with Minors with EIM to resolve conflicts affecting youth with updated strategies and the help of experts in the field.
