Juvenile Delinquency

With the Delhi gang rape case igniting the issue of women security in India, another raging question which has come into the limelight is about juvenile delinquency. As one the rapist was a 16 year old, the nation has been witnessing a hot debate regarding reducing the age of juveniles from 18 to 16. The Justice Verma committee, however, shot down the appeal for reducing the age bar but could not press the building resentment amongst people regarding the problematic nature of the Juvenile Justice Act.

Over the past four years, there has been a rise in juvenile crimes all over the world. According to USA’s Centre for Sex Offender Management, approximately 20% of all rape cases and 50% of child molestation cases are committed by juveniles. The recent incident in Connecticut school where a twenty year old boy killed twenty students and himself served as testimony to the rising crimes in the youth raising severe questions. In India, the involvement of juveniles in crimes has jumped by 10.5% under the Indian Penal Code. The horrifying numbers call for serious attention and deliberation regarding the upbringing of children in India and around the world. 

The legal age of juveniles varies globally between 16 and 18. It also depends upon the gravity of the crime committed. For example, in England, when juveniles commit adult crimes such as rape and murder they are tried in the Crown’s Court. Similarly many other countries treat juvenile crimes as adult crimes according to their severity and hence transfer them to adult courts. The two legal concessions that a juvenile enjoys is the assumption that the juvenile is unable to comprehend the consequence of the crime and that there is scope for reform in a juvenile far greater than an adult. Even if these concessions are complied to, the debate questions the right age to enjoy the benefits of the JJA. With the biological evolution, rise in awareness, introduction of technology and information boom, the innocence of juvenile and inability to infer the consequences is a highly dubious assumption to the opposing side. According to them, the Juvenile Justice Act does not cater to the changing environment the juvenile is exposed to and thus there is a dire need for reform.  

There is another division of people questioning the fundamental causes why juveniles are pushed into crime at an early age. Problems such as socio-cultural background, poverty, mental illness and parental pressure are enlisted by experts as the top reasons why a child becomes a delinquent. However recent statistics have debunked the role of poverty into juvenile crimes as the rising number of delinquents hail from affluent families. The country’s reluctance to address these fundamental issues reduces the chances of juvenile crime prevention and reform. If the country is able to fix the problems at the elemental level, the whole debate about reducing the juvenile age bar would become redundant.

The pathetic condition of juvenile homes is another factor that needs to be considered while analyzing crimes committed by children. The shelters are breeding grounds for criminals due to the frequent assaults subjected upon the children housed there. These homes defy the whole concept of reform amongst juvenile delinquents and render the purpose of the JJA useless.

The debate posed upon reducing the age of juvenile delinquents seems very superficial. It requires serious deliberation and focus on the elemental factors that push a minor into committing a crime. Reducing the age might not decrease the crime rate and thus there is a need to revisit the nature of legal concessions offered to delinquents. There is a need for reform in the JJA encompassing the changing nature of children in the world and the environment they are exposed to. Then only, perhaps, the nation and the world can curb the alarming problem of children throwing away books and brandishing lethal weapons.