Crimes are not only done by adults, for a long time some heinous and serious crimes had been committed by juveniles. Juvenile in law context means” a young person who is not yet old enough to be considered as an adult”. A great Latin maxim describes the juvenile justice system of India as “Nil Novi Spectrum”, which means nothing is new on the planet. The existence of thought, from ancient times, that the children need to be dealt with leniently as it might affect their growth mentally and physically. India’s juvenile system is based on the saying that goes” It is never too late to mend”. Legal professionals, on daily basis, deal with cases based on child delinquency, as the rate of crimes committed by juveniles is also getting high, so it is necessary for law aspirants to understand what Juvenile Delinquency is and how the Indian Juvenile Justice System deals with them.
Juvenile delinquency: A term which is used to describe illegal actions by the minor is known as Junevile delinquency. This word has been used as an umbrella which covers many meanings such as; from minor crimes like theft to serious crimes like murder and robbery. In simple terms, Juvenile delinquency occurs when a minor commits a criminal offence. This is also known as Juvenile offending and every state separate legal system for those who break the law. In the present scenario, there are number of cases in Indian court based on juvenile delinquency and many lawyers face such situations every day, that’s why law aspirants opt for online legal courses based on the Indian Juvenile Judicial system, Juvenile Delinquency and offences against a child.
Role of Juvenile Justice System in India: The Indian Juvenile system is developed with the constitution of India. There are many articles and sections that are made by keeping the children and juveniles in mind. In simple words, “Juvenile Justice System is a system coming within the area of criminal law administration of justice, the sole purpose of this system is to deal with the young persons who cannot be considered an adult yet commits a crime or comes in way of enforcement of a law”. There was once a time when juvenile offenders were treated or handled as the same other criminals, but keeping their age, innocence and chance to rehabilitate, U.N. Assembly enacted a declaration on the rights of children protection. The declaration states that– “there shall be no legal proceedings or court proceedings against the juveniles to protect their social rehabilitation”.
Reformation of Juvenile Justice System in India: After the declaration of the UN assembly, many countries joined the initiative and it had a very powerful impact on the Indian Juvenile justice system also. This convection leads to the enactment of a new law “The Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act 2000” in the place of the previous Juvenile Justice act 1986. The JJ Act 2000 was introduced to amend the laws which concern the juvenile conflicts with the law and also the children who are in need of care and protection. But the implementation of the act was not proper due to which it earned a lot of criticism and was amended twice, first in the year 2006 than in the year 2011. But the fright of the public increased after the Nirbhaya Case of Delhi has brought the attention of the public to the loopholes of the act and the increasing number of cases concerning juveniles.
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015: At last, it was replaced by Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015. The act was called upon to solve the issue of the rising crime rate among the age group of 15-18 years. The Act defines the word “Child” in two different contexts with two completely different meanings. In Section 2 (12), Child means “Child in the need of care and protection) and in Section 2 (13), Child means “Conflict with the Law”. This act ensures that Juvenile Justice Boards(JJB) and Child Welfare Committees(CWC), will be constituted in each district. Also, this act also divided crimes into three categories;
- Heinous Offence: Offences penalty with 7 years of imprisonment.
- Serious Offence: Offences that get imprisonment between 3 to 7 years.
- Petty Offence: Offences that get imprisonment up to 3 years.
Also, any child between 15 to 18 who commits a hideous crime, may be trialled as an adult, and if the crimes fall under petty or serious offences then they are considered children and they are treated as adults after attaining the age of 18 or 21 years.
Difference between Child and Juvenile: Child and Juvenile are words which are very similar to each other but still have a lot of differences. Child term is used with positive connotation and is meant to describe the innocent individual. On the other hand, Juvenile has a negative undertone associated with them. Children are not sent for trial but are sent to child care centres. Children are believed to be too naive to understand the nature of the crime as well as its consequences. While, usually a juvenile is between the age of 15 to 18, and can be sent to trial as a consequence based on the category of their crime.
Conclusion: There are various reasons for Juvenile delinquency such as; adolescence instability, economic condition, poverty, migration and disintegration of the family system. This is a very burning issue in the Indian government and is one of the biggest concerns in the Judicial system. Strict law, proper implementation, and regulation of the act are the way to solve these issues, also the legal profession plays an important role in this. Law aspirants are expected to have complete knowledge of Juveline Delinquency and offences against children, that’s why these students choose free online legal certification courses and learn in-depth knowledge of these subjects. Now is the time that all collectively put the effort into the protection of the children of India.