“Juvenile delinquency serves many purposes, including that of providing sadistic adults with fantasies suited to their special tastes.”
– Edgar Friedenberg[1]
I would hope that the staffs at juvenile detention centers and reform schools are carefully chosenso that there is a community of support and hope.
“I cannot think who my residents hurt but how I can give them tools to remain on the right side of civilization.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Juvenile Justice: A Reference Handbook, 2nd Edition (Contemporary World Issues[3]
ABSTRACT
Basically, the word itself briefly refers to a wide range of problems. In simple language, who are below 18 years of age, whether they are boys or girls,involved in crime or criminal acts or a victim of criminal activities, or seen in many instances.The cases where it clearly shows primafacie visibility of deviation and change in the normal youthful pattern of behaviors. Juvenile Delinquency in the other way can be framed as juvenile offending. Which can be easily seen among minors as a part of unlawful act and behavior. The word delinquency is also a part and also relates to the juvenile delinquency which universalizes in the context of young individualswhose acts becomes unlawful with respect to the state order and that is the intolerant or offensive way.
The study analyzed the age group and education status of juvenile delinquents and detected that juvenile delinquents of age group between 16-18 years are mostly involved in crimes compared to other age groups of 7-12 years and 12-16 years respectively.
KEYWORDS: Juvenile Delinquency; Juvenile crimes and justice, Cause andConsequences, Interventions and Prevention Strategies and reforms in juvenile justice system, (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015; Neighboring Nation Acts on juvenile justice and other nations
INTRODUCTION
Juvenile Delinquency relates to the offensive activity by the minor indulging into the criminal behavior to violate the law. juvenile delinquency has become the serious concern and escalating crime rates by juvenile offenders. Juvenile offences describe and indicates the worsening status of the society which is joining are creating the certain age group and patterns in the society. It is generally seen from most sources that where adolescents are kept in such a positive behavioral environment, usually positive attitudes arise very easily in a completely light-hearted situation This is most Debatable issues among the expertise of psychological fraternity and criminologist groups. Juvenile delinquency in Indiais most challenging aspects.
In US, the age for juvenile delinquent is different for different states. In early 19th century the punishments for juvenile and default criminal were almost similar and punishments were decided according to the level of seriousness of crime. Before 18th century the juvenile of age over 7 were getting same treatment as adult one. The first juvenile court was established in Illiinois.The main objective of juvenile court was to study the terminology and methodology of juvenile treatment as well the psychological conditions of juvenile keeping their identification confidential.
Most of the states like Michigan, New York and Vermont updated the age of juvenile to 19 years. Some of them like Georgia and Texas kept it same as 17 years. On the contrast Japan has decreased the age to 18 years from 20 years with a law introduced in 2022.
In addition, the minimum age for juvenile have also been changed state wise with the criminal responsibility which is different in different states. Some states mark the factor of seriousness of crime as deciding factor of minimum ages of juvenile. Different types of crimes with different levels such as absenteeism, drinking or smoking are less serious crimes than property crime, sexual offences or cybercrime.
Legal Scenario in India
In the context of laws in India, it was first introduced in the year of 1960, in the form of Children Act 1960.The law was introduced with the aim to help and protection of those minor children who need it.
In the year 1986, one Act was introduced on the place of Children Act 1960, which was Juvenile Justice Act (JJA). This act was an extensive structure for providing ais and interest to children. After several amendments it was build up for the rights of a child and also became compatible for solving conflicts between the laws of child protection. This was made more clarified in terms of the difference between laws for children and adults. The age for the juvenile term was also raised from 16 years to 18 years.
Few years later it was amended again and new Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of children) Act,2015 came into action. In this act it was emphasized that there should be a framework for care and recovery of the juvenile in spite of penalizing them every time.
In addition, some judicial bodies were established like Juvenile Justice Board and Child Welfare Committee. The bodies are responsible for the enactment of the act properly and to ensure that child’s best care and protection should be summarized in the judgements.[4]
National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
According to the data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which still remains a major concern for the country. As per the estimate records during the 2021 approximately 31200 cases had been registered against the minor across the country. This data clearly reflects the comparable rise of almost 4.7% according to the report of 2020. Although the cases which had been registered were against the age these juveniles under the age bracket of 16 to 18%. The crime rate approached almost 7.0% during the year 2021.
Psychological Assessments of Juvenile
The psychological assessments of juvenile are a very important aspect of reformation process of their lives. Several steps should be taken in this context such as education, vocational training and consensus of social values etc.
- Adoption -In the rehabilitation process adoption is a very impactful step. Sec2(2) of Juvenile Justice Act 2015 states that adoption helps both the parties simultaneously as the child separated from biological parents will get new parents and family. On the other hand, childless couple gets a way to complete their family.
- Peer pressure in Juvenile Delinquency-Adolescent spend more time with their same age and interests’persons. This can lead to engagement of teens to different bad behavior. This should be early identified, so that they may not become serious offender in future.
Causes of Juvenile Delinquency in India
As we know the diversified behavioral condition of human being is a big trouble to study any psychological pattern in any age group. When we look into the matter of juvenile, we can summarize several factors which are responsible for their misconduct behavior.
- Financial Condition-In Indian society different financial conditions can be seen at different levels of society. The monetary condition of a family severely impacts upon the upbringing of a child. Scarcity encourages wrongdoing and leads to crime.
- Sexual Abuse-Children who have indulged in unusual sexual activity or who became victim of sexual attack at early age became a most violent personality in their adult age.
- Broken Family- The children of the families who have faced divorced or separated parents in their early ages become more intolerant towards life. The lack of either of the parenting give rise to an absence and revenge tendencies and eventually leads to crime.[5]
Conclusion
Juvenile delinquency in India is a very important issues in the current scenario at the social and personal front. The society has to be aware about this delinquency so that future steps could be taken in order to prevent the childhood to be destroyed. In order to study the aspects of delinquency, one has to adopt a holistic approach and also focus on the reformation process of the juvenile. The basic reasons behind the origin of the abusive behavior of a child are hidden inside the society and family structure only. So, it is important to understand the loopholes in the upbringing of a child or situations of the childhood of a child when we lead to rehabilitation. For this society should be aware about the education and mental health of the children and also there should be a mechanism to introduce the facilities for juvenile reforms.
References
Abirami, R. A. (2023). JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN INDIA. International Journal of Human Rights Law Review.
Varsha. (2023, JULY 8). Juvenile Delinquency in India: Challenges and Solutions. B&B Associates LLP.
[1]Edgar Friedenberg Quote: “Juvenile delinquency serves many purposes, including that of providing sadistic adults with fantasies suited to their sp…” (quotefancy.com)
[2]Adam Rapp – I would hope that the staffs at juvenile… (brainyquote.com)
[3]Juvenile Justice Quotes by Donald J. Shoemaker (goodreads.com)
[4] Varsha, “Juvenile Delinquency in India: Challenges and Solutions” B&B ASSOCIATES LLP, JUL.8,2023
[5] R. Aneka Abirami,”JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN INDIA”,Volume 2 | Issue 4, IJHRLW (2023).