Juvenile crimes in India

                 Juvenile crimes in India

 

Introduction

Juvenile criminality is a dismal reality in India. A juvenile is a youngster who has not yet reached the age when they can be held responsible for their illegal conduct in the same way that an adult can. The term juvenile is used to describe a young criminal offender. As a result, a juvenile is a youngster who has been accused of engaging in illegal acts or omissions and has been designated as such under criminal laws. Juveniles have recently been implicated in the most heinous crimes, including murder and gang rape. Although the roots of criminal behaviour in children are complex, certain children's delinquency is fairly predictable early in their lives.

 

Juvenile crime : an analysis 

Child crime is regarded as a juvenile offence in India. Child crimes are delinquent activities performed by minors under the age of a certain age. The dilemma of who should be referred to as a child, on the other hand, arises. Is there an age limit or a maximum age limit for this? In India, children of varying ages have been labelled as child criminals. To be declared a criminal in India, for example, a youngster must be 14 years old, with the highest age being 18. As a result, there are no general guidelines for determining the minimum and maximum ages of juvenile offenders. A crime committed by minors under the age of 18 is clearly characterised as a child crime. Under Section 2 (l3) of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015, a "child in conflict with the law" is defined as a child who is alleged or determined to have committed an offence and has not reached the age of eighteen on the date of the offence. Several petty and major crimes, such as theft, burglary, snatching, robbery, dacoity, murder, and rape, are committed on a regular basis in India, and the shocking fact is that all of these crimes are committed by children under the age of eighteen. There is also a trend among minors that individuals aged 16 to 18 are more likely to be involved in heinous criminal acts. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, of the 43,506 offences committed against children in 2019 under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Special Local Law (SLL) by juveniles, 28,830 were committed by those in the age range indicated.

Symptoms of a child offender

In India, authorities charged 27,936 children with significant offences such as banditry, murder, rape, and rioting in 2012. According to NCRB data, in 2012, two-thirds of those who came before JJB (Juvenile Justice Boards) were between the ages of 16 and 18. In addition, 30.9 percent of those polled were between the ages of 12 and 16, with the remainder (2.5 percent) falling between the ages of 7 and 12. Between 2002 and 2012, the number of minor rapes increased by 143 percent. The number of homicides has climbed by 87 percent, while the number of women and girls kidnapped by minors has increased by 500 percent, according to the report.

However, between 2007 and 2012, the number of serious crimes like rape and murder perpetrated by juveniles accounted for just 8% of all crimes committed by minors. Petty crimes such as stealing, burglary, and inflicting harm account for 72 percent of all crimes committed by juveniles. Taking into note the increasing graph of juvenile crimes in India, it is necessary to be well familiar with the symptoms being evident to show which child has an inclination towards becoming an offender or is already one. The symptoms that can be summarized from various researches and studies, responsibly defining a child offender, have been laid down hereunder: 

In many cases, a juvenile’s bodily structure is healthy, and a healthy body is powerful and courageous.

• They are naturally restless, introverted, and disruptive.

• They have an unethical, highly emotional, egotistical, and self-centred nature.

• They are myopic, oblivious to the repercussions of their actions.

• Child offenders are more likely than other youngsters to have a psychotic condition.

• In child criminals, there is a lack of healthy id, ego, and superego equilibrium.

• They are frequently irritated, disappointed, and melancholic.

• They disobey norms, go against the power, break the law, and have a tendency to be untrustworthy.

• They have no pre-planned solution to any difficulty that their culture has thrown at them.

• In the majority of cases, they don’t talk to their relatives and families about their problems.