A juvenile offender has a unique place in the criminal justice system of Croatia. There are numerous international and national legal documents that seek to protect juvenile offenders from the rigors and formalism of the usual trial procedure. Instead, as many as possible, minors are tried to be given alternative sanctions, such as an apology to the injured party, repair of the damage, involvement in psychosocial treatment, re-attendance of traffic regulations, involvement in the mediation process, work in the framework of humanitarian organizations or jobs of ecological or communal significance, and the like. In the 1980s, the Netherlands began to implement the Halt program as a type of alternative procedure for juvenile offenders. Modeled on the Dutch system, Croatia has also started implementing a pilot program called "Stop" as a substitute for the formal trial procedure for juvenile offenders. Both programs aim to reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency. The subject of this paper is the study of the position of a minor perpetrator of criminal offenses and the possibility of implementing alternative procedures. Among other things, a comparative method was used, i.e. an analysis in the countries of Croatia and the Netherlands, which indicates the special position of a minor perpetrator of a criminal offense, but also the tendency of a protective attitude towards him in both Croatia and the Netherlands.