By K. Lakshmi Manasa
Nil Novi Spectrum is a Latin word, which means nothing is new on this earth. From the start, it is always believed that children need to be dealt delicately and leniently, the reason being if they are dealt harshly, they tend to react in a harsh way and turn aggressive. In the past decade it is observed that children aged between 15-16 are seen committing crimes due to many reasons. Children aged below 15 years are also being exploited for many unlawful activities and are being manipulated to do many things. To avoid any crimes committed by children, juvenile justice system was introduced which will help a new pathway for the children to improve their lifestyle.
Meaning of Juvenile:
Often the words minor, and juvenile are interchanged even though they are almost same, there is a minor difference between these two words. Minor is a child who is of age below 15 years and under a legal obligation and responsibility of an adult and when he commits a crime, he is sent to Childcare Center. Juvenile is a teen aged between 16 to 18 years, and when such juvenile commits a crime, he is sent to juvenile centre and is tried as an adult in court proceedings.
History:
The difference between juveniles and adults were not a new thing for us it was dated way back in 1790 BC, then during the British rule in India, it was the Britishers who differentiated between both of them as they thought if the children were given right guidance in probation centre, when they turn into adults, they would be better persons. Post independence, the constitution did provide protection and development for children under articles and DPSP. An act was also introduced to stop the illegal activities by children. The juvenile justice act 1986 was introduced in United Nations declaration. By seeing this impact of this act, India wanted to introduce the Juvenile Justice Act 2000.
Juvenile Justice System:
The juvenile justice system falls under criminal law and its main aim is to set right the children who are not old enough to be responsible for their criminal actions. This system means ensuring just, fair, and equitable treatment for children to shape their personality in the society. In India, in the year 2000 our government introduced the juvenile justice system and was amended two times in 2006 and 2011. The juvenile crimes can be seen since the ancient times and the juvenile justice system existed since then. Before the creation of juvenile courts, kids under the age of seven were never held guilty of criminal acts. Because they were all incapable of necessary criminal intent. It was believed that kids of age 7 to 14 could not commit a criminal act but it was disproved by showing that the criminal act and its effects on others and the kids still committing it.
Juvenile Justice System in India:
When this act had positive impact in other countries, India also initiated this act in the year 20152000 and when the constitution was amended provisions for juveniles were also added. In India, it is made on three assumptions:
1. The offenders should not be tried in courts but should be corrected in all the possible ways.
2. They shouldn’t be directly punished, but they should be reformed into a better person with available resources.
3. Non – penal treatments should be used instead of penal treatment on children.
This act in the year 2015 was amended for a more robust and effective justice system as well as for reformative approaches. Thus, the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act 2015 focused on more juvenile friendly approach for adjudication and disposition matters.
The features are:
1. A clear difference between child and juvenile were clearly mentioned. 2. There was a clear distinction made between offences which are divided under heinous, serious, and petty.
3. Juvenile court was introduced for children where they had to be trailed.
These days it is observed that juveniles are involved in serious crimes like murders and rapes. The most recent example being Nirbhaya case where a juvenile was identified and instead of punishing him, he was put in juvenile centre for transforming him to a better person.
Reasons for Juvenile Delinquency:
For a juvenile to commit a crime it is very important to understand what are the circumstances which made the child to commit such an act. The reasons can be like hormonal change, upbringing, economic problems, dominant masculinity, and no proper education. Also social, psychological, and biological factors also effect the juvenile to commit a crime.
1. Adolescence Instability: The biological, sociological, and psychological factors at the adolescent age is also important as this is the stage where the child becomes more conscious of everything around him and starts to behave differently and if things don’t go in his way, he tends to change his behaviour in a negative way.
2. Family: If the child is from a disoriented family, then the divorce of his parents or lack of affection and things like that will impact the behaviour of children. 3. Economic Condition: Sometimes poverty and poor economic condition will also impact the child behaviour as due to their condition he must have been into robbery, theft, murder, and things like that for basic need like clothes and food which will turn into serious crimes in future.
4. Lifestyle: The changing society where many modern styles are being introduced, it is difficult for the child to adjust through all these changes and sometimes without knowing right and wrong they indulge in certain bad activities.
5. Migration: Due to economic conditions or any other conditions if migration happens into slum areas, they are introduced to illegal activities for which they are easily attracted and manipulating them into doing such activities is also easy.
Juvenile Court:
Under the constitution of India, special courts have been introduced to handle problem of children and juvenile known juvenile courts. This was introduced due to the reason of not wanting to punish the children rather to reform them while sending them to rehab centres. In these courts generally both civil and criminal matters are heard. In the former cases like abandoned children or where one parent can’t take care of the child, such cases are heard,
while in the latter, cases like murder, rapes, theft etc are heard. A minor under the age of 15 years has to be heard in front of juvenile justice board and can pass a sentence of maximum up to 3 years. Juvenile who committed a serious crime will be trailed in children’s court as an adult and he can be sentenced for more than 3 years and not death penalty. In some cases, if the crime is very serious, he will be sent to rehab until the age of 21 years and then later he will be shifted to jail.
Conclusion:
Under the constitution of India, several articles and DPSP has provided certain rights for the welfare of the children. Articles 21A, Article 24, Article 39e, Article 39, Article 47, Article 15(3) have certain rights and provisions provided for the welfare of the children. Also, Chapter IV of the act lays down provisions for betterment of juveniles and focus on reformation and rehabilitation centres. The juvenile justice system has historically used fines, therapy, and intervention to alter problematic activities of children, but it has been found that once they are actively involved in a criminal activity, it is more difficult to turn them around. Hence, prevention is better than cure. Therefore, many measures have been taken to prevent children from taking narcotics, drugs and other substances which will make them do wrongful things. This technique has been proven right for the teenagers to keep them away from any kind of offence be it adultery or theft or cheating or online fraud. Within the juvenile legal system there are many ways to prevent, and those ways are yet to be effective because everything takes time. With initiatives such as functional family counselling and instructions based on developing talents etc, we have to prevent juveniles from committing any kind of crime.
The author of this article is K.Lakshmi Manasa, a fourth-year BALLB student at Keshav Memorial College of Law, Hyderabad.
References:
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