| School-leaving age |
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93. In order to acquire certain rights - and responding to some specific queries posed in the guidelines - the Italian regulations fix the following age limits:
(c) End of compulsory education: Elementary education, carried out for at least eight years, is compulsory (article 34 of the Constitution). Given that school begins at 6 years, education is now compulsory until the age of 14 years. However, the length of compulsory schooling, beginning from the school year 1999/2000 will be raised from 8 to 10 years (art. 1, para. 1, Law No. 9 of 20 January 1999) and therefore it will continue normally until 16 years of age. […]
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| Minimum age of employment |
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93. In order to acquire certain rights - and responding to some specific queries posed in the guidelines - the Italian regulations fix the following age limits:
(d) Entry into employment or work including hazardous work, part-time work, full-time work and apprenticeship: The minimum ages for admission to work are established by Law No. 977 of 17 October 1967:
- At 14 years in agriculture and in work for the family, or in light, non-industrial work, provided that it is compatible with the needs of child health protection and does not involve transgression of compulsory schooling;
- At 15 years in the ordinary way, and for apprentices;
- At 16 years for itinerant occupations;
- At 16 years for males and at 18 years for females for hazardous, laborious or unhealthy jobs, also for cleaning and servicing of engines and transmission parts of working machines;
- At 18 years for underground work in quarries, mines, bogs and tunnels, and lifting weights and transport of goods on wheelbarrows and on two-wheeled hand-carts, when such work is carried out in conditions of special discomfort and danger, for open-cast mining in quarries, mines and bogs, for work loading and unloading sulphur ovens, for work in cinematographic halls and in the preparation of theatrical performances, in the manoeuvring and towing of mine carts, and in the retail supply of alcoholic drinks.
Article 6, Law No. 196/1997 amends the law relating to apprenticeship which concerns: […]
- The minimum and maximum age limits fixed for entering into an apprenticeship contract (16 years and 24 years);
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| Minimum age for marriage |
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93. In order to acquire certain rights - and responding to some specific queries posed in the guidelines - the Italian regulations fix the following age limits:
e) Marriage: Minors cannot contract marriage, but, where psychological and physical maturity has been ascertained and given serious motives, the Juvenile Court may allow the marriage of those - either boys or girls - who have reached the age of 16 years (art. 84, Civil Code);
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| Minimum age for criminal responsibility |
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93. In order to acquire certain rights - and responding to some specific queries posed in the guidelines - the Italian regulations fix the following age limits:
(i) Criminal responsibility: The minor is not legally responsible for crimes committed up to the age of 14, presuming that until that age, for whatever crime, he or she is not sufficiently capable of forming the necessary criminal intent (art. 97, Criminal Code). Between the ages of 14 and 18 years each case must be decided individually as to whether the minor, at the time of committing the crime, had the capacity of understanding or the intention and therefore whether he or she was legally criminally responsible for his or her actions (art. 98, Criminal Code). […]
(j) […] Precautionary measures or detention can be applied commencing from the age of 14 years. With regard to children under the age of 14 who commit serious crimes or who are considered to be effectively dangerous, the security measure of placing them in a judicial reformatory can be applied (art. 224, Criminal Code) without a minimum age limit. […]
552. Reformatories run by the Ministry of Justice have not existed for many years (since 1977). The services of the Ministry of Justice, as mentioned earlier, can only become involved in criminal cases, and therefore only handle cases involving children who have reached the age of 14. Exceptionally, they can become involved in the cases of younger children, when the court considers a child to be a danger to society and orders, as a security measure, that the child be placed in a judicial reformatory. This measure is only provided for in relation to very grave crimes (e.g. murder). Until 1988, custodial sentences involving placement in a judicial reformatory were carried out in institutions run by the Ministry of Justice. This procedure was amended by Decree of President of the Republic No. 448 of 1988, and young offenders are now placed in a community setting.
567. Approximately 10,000 juveniles accused of crimes are under 14 years of age, which means they are not liable to charges and cannot be judged or sentenced because they have not yet reached the age of criminal responsibility. The only applicable sanctions are civil measures that are non-custodial and do not limit their freedom. Any action is the responsibility of the local social services. […]
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