The age of legal responsibility is lowered to seven.

It has become more organized, with gang leaders buying or leasing youngsters under the age of legal responsibility.

Because the age of legal responsibility is nine in the central region and 11 in the IKR, children are liable to be treated as criminals instead of victims.

The age of legal liability is 16, and Fundacion Sur asserted that 16- and 17-year-old offenders frequently were transferred to adult criminal courts or held in juvenile detention centers for longer periods than warranted by their offenses.