Contexts of Vulnerability and Criminal Responsibility: Associations Between Sociodemographic and Community Factors Among Youth in Bolívar

Abstract

This article proposes a sociolegal analysis of the Adolescent Criminal Responsibility System (SRPA) in Bolívar, Colombia, with an emphasis on juvenile criminological vulnerability and its relationship to sociodemographic, social, and community factors. It defends a restorative and social approach within a framework of rights and justice for children and adolescents, drawing on Zaffaroni's theory and key jurisprudence such as ruling C-740/08. The research combines a documentary review and quantitative analysis of official data from 2024 and 2025, obtained from the ICBF (National Criminal Investigation Commission) and the Judicial Branch, to describe SRPA admissions, crime patterns, gender distribution, and geographic location. The RAD method integrates regulations, doctrine, and empirical data and is organized into two phases: a heuristic approach to collecting legal, doctrinal, and statistical information, and a hermeneutic approach to qualitative critical analysis supported by descriptive and comparative temporal approaches. The findings show a marked gender inequality with male predominance (e.g., 136 men versus 9 women among 145 cases in August 2025) and a geographic concentration of crime in vulnerable neighborhoods of Cartagena (Olaya Herrera, La María, Nelson Mandela, Boquilla), indicators of persistent community vulnerability and an increase in cases from 2024 to 2025 that suggests structural failures in prevention. Relevant social factors include incomplete education (mainly between 6th and 9th grade), complex family dynamics, psychoactive substance use and geographic origin from the Caribbean, with the majority of adolescents between 15 and 20 years old and a high level of PAS use (approximately 83% in a sample of 30), with early onset between 11 and 12 years old. Thus, it is concluded that the SRPA in Bolívar reflects structural vulnerability linked to sociodemographic and community factors, reproduces gender biases, and concentrates interventions in areas with greater social disorganization, fueling criticism that the system functions as a mechanism for criminalizing poverty. Based on this, a shift toward preventive and restorative interventions is proposed, with public policies focused on social development, education, and opportunities for adolescents, and a reformulation of SRPA practices toward more preventive, social, and less penalizing responses. This synthesis supports the design of public policies and institutional practices oriented toward restorative justice and effective social inclusion, in accordance with the framework of the Children and Adolescents Code, with an emphasis on territorialized social prevention and investment in human capital in the most vulnerable areas