JUVENILE DELINQUENCY: WORKING OF JUVENILE COURTS IN INDIA.

ABSTRACT

Juvenile delinquency, also known as "juvenile offending", is participation in illegal behaviour

by minors (juveniles, i.e. individuals younger than the statutory age of majority). In recent
years a higher proportion of youth have experienced arrests by their early 20s than in the past,
although some scholars have concluded this may reflect more aggressive criminal justice
and tolerance policies rather than changes in youth behaviour. Juvenile crimes can range
from status offenses (such as underage smoking), to property crimes and violent
crimes. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 has been passed by
Parliament of India. It aims to replace the existing Indian juvenile delinquency law, Juvenile
Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, so that juveniles in conflict with Law in
the age group of 16–18, involved in Heinous Offences, can be tried as adults. The Act came
into force from 15 January 2016. This paper aims at discussing the nature and causes of
Juvenile delinquency along with the working of juvenile courts in India.

INTRODUCTION:

Juvenile delinquency, also known as "juvenile offending", is participation in illegal behavior

by minors (juveniles, i.e. individuals younger than the statutory age of majority)1. Most legal
systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention
centres, and courts. A juvenile delinquent in the United States is a person who is typically below
18 (17 in New York, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Texas) years of age and commits an
act that otherwise would have been charged as a crime if they were an adult. Depending on the
type and severity of the offense committed, it is possible for people under 18 to be charged and
treated as adults.

In recent years a higher proportion of youth have experienced arrests by their early 20s than in
the past, although some scholars have concluded this may reflect more aggressive criminal
justice and zero-tolerance policies rather than changes in youth behaviour2. Juvenile crimes can
range from status offenses (such as underage smoking), to property crimes and violent crimes.
Youth violence rates in the United States have dropped to approximately 12% of peak rates in
1993 according to official US government statistics, suggesting that most juvenile offending is
non-violent3.
However, juvenile offending can be considered to be normative adolescent behavior.[4] This is
because most teens tend to offend by committing non-violent crimes, only once or a few times,
and only during adolescence. Repeated and/or violent offending is likely to lead to later and more
violent offenses. When this happens, the offender often displayed antisocial behavioreven before
reaching adolescence.4

1
Siegel, Larry J.; Welsh, Brandon (2011). Juvenile Delinquency: The Core (4th ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/cengage Learning. ISBN 0534519326.
2
Steinberg, L. (2008). Adolescence (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780073405483.
3
"Childstats.gov - America's Young Adults: Special Issue, 2014 - Contraception". childstats.gov.
4
Moffitt (2006). "Life course persistent versus adolescent limited antisocial behavior". In Cicchetti, D.; Cohen,
D. Developmental Psychopathy (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
Types[edit]
Juvenile delinquency, or offending, can be separated into three categories:

 delinquency, crimes committed by minors, which are dealt with by the juvenile courts and
justice system;
 criminal behavior, crimes dealt with by the criminal justice system;
 status offenses, offenses that are only classified as such because one is a minor, such
as truancy, also dealt with by the juvenile courts.[6]
According to the developmental research of Moffitt (2006),[4] there are two different types of
offenders that emerge in adolescence. One is the repeat offender, referred to as the life-course-
persistent offender, who begins offending or showing antisocial/aggressive behavior in
adolescence (or even in childhood) and continues into adulthood; and the age specific offender,
referred to as the adolescence-limited offender, for whom juvenile offending or delinquency
begins and ends during their period of adolescence.[5] Because most teenagers tend to show
some form of antisocial or delinquent behavior during adolescence, it is important to account for
these behaviors in childhood in order to determine whether they will be life-course-persistent
offenders or adolescence-limited offenders.[5] Although adolescence-limited offenders tend to
drop all criminal activity once they enter adulthood and show less pathology than life-course-
persistent offenders, they still show more mental health, substance abuse, and financial
problems, both in adolescence and adulthood, than those who were never delinquent.[7]

Risk factors[edit]
The two largest predictors of juvenile delinquency are

 parenting style, with the two styles most likely to predict delinquency being

 "permissive" parenting, characterized by a lack of consequence-based discipline and

encompassing two subtypes known as

 "neglectful" parenting, characterized by a lack of monitoring and thus of knowledge of

the child's activities, and
 "indulgent" parenting, characterized by affirmative enablement of misbehavior

 "authoritarian" parenting, characterized by harsh discipline and refusal to justify

discipline on any basis other than "because I said so";

 peer group association, particularly with antisocial peer groups, as is more likely when
adolescents are left unsupervised.[4]
Other factors that may lead a teenager into juvenile delinquency include poor or
low socioeconomic status, poor school readiness/performance and/or failure, peer rejection,
or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). There may also be biological factors, such
as high levels of serotonin, giving them a difficult temper and poor self-regulation, and a
lower resting heart rate, which may lead to fearlessness. Delinquent activity, particularly the
involvement in youth gangs, may also be caused by a desire for protection against violence
or financial hardship, as the offenders view delinquent activity as a means of surrounding
themselves with resources to protect against these threats. Most of these influences tend to
be caused by a mix of both genetic and environmental factors.[4]

Applicable crime theories[edit]

There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not all of are applicable
to the causes of juvenile delinquency.

Rational choice[edit]
Classical criminology stresses that causes of crime lie within the individual offender, rather than
in their external environment. For classicists, offenders are motivated by rational self-interest,
and the importance of free will and personal responsibility is emphasized.[23] Rational choice
theory is the clearest example of this idea. Delinquency is one of the major factors motivated by
rational choice.

Social disorganization[edit]
Current positivist approaches generally focus on the culture. A type of criminological theory
attributing variation in crime and delinquency over time and among territories to the absence or
breakdown of communal institutions (e.g. family, school, church and social groups.) and
communal relationships that traditionally encouraged cooperative relationships among people.

Strain[edit]
Strain theory is associated mainly with the work of Robert Merton. He felt that there
are institutionalized paths to success in society. Strain theory holds that crime is caused by the
difficulty those in poverty have in achieving socially valued goals by legitimate means.[23] As
those with, for instance, poor educational attainment have difficulty achieving wealth and status
by securing well paid employment, they are more likely to use criminal means to obtain these
goals.[24] Merton's suggests five adaptations to this dilemma:

1. Innovation: individuals who accept socially approved goals, but not necessarily the
socially approved means.
2. Retreatism: those who reject socially approved goals and the means for acquiring them.
3. Ritualism: those who buy into a system of socially approved means, but lose sight of the
goals. Merton believed that drug users are in this category.
4. Conformity: those who conform to the system's means and goals.
5. Rebellion: people who negate socially approved goals and means by creating a new
system of acceptable goals and means.
A difficulty with strain theory is that it does not explore why children of low-income families would
have poor educational attainment in the first place. More importantly is the fact that much youth
crime does not have an economic motivation. Strain theory fails to explain violent crime, the type
of youth crime that causes most anxiety to the public.

Differential association[edit]
The theory of Differential association also deals with young people in a group context, and looks
at how peer pressure and the existence of gangs could lead them into crime. It suggests young
people are motivated to commit crimes by delinquent peers, and learn criminal skills from them.
The diminished influence of peers after men marry has also been cited as a factor in desisting
from offending. There is strong evidence that young people with criminal friends are more likely
to commit crimes themselves. However it may be the case that offenders prefer to associate with
one another, rather than delinquent peers causing someone to start offending. Furthermore there
is the question of how the delinquent peer group became delinquent initially.

Labeling[edit]
Labeling theory is a concept within Criminology that aims to explain deviant behavior from the
social context rather than looking at the individual themselves. It is part of Interactionism
criminology that states that once young people have been labeled as criminal they are more
likely to offend.[23] The idea is that once labelled as deviant a young person may accept that role,
and be more likely to associate with others who have been similarly labelled.[23] Labelling
theorists say that male children from poor families are more likely to be labelled deviant, and that
this may partially explain why there are more working class young male offenders.[15]

Social control[edit]
Social control theory proposes that exploiting the process of socialization and social learning
builds self-control and can reduce the inclination to indulge in behavior recognized as antisocial.
The four types of control can help prevent juvenile delinquency are:
Direct: by which punishment is threatened or applied for wrongful behavior, and compliance is
rewarded by parents, family, and authority figures. Internal: by which a youth refrains from
delinquency through the conscience or superego. Indirect: by identification with those who
influence behavior, say because his or her delinquent act might cause pain and disappointment
to parents and others with whom he or she has close relationships. Control through needs
satisfaction, i.e. if all an individual's needs are met, there is no point in criminal activity.