This article is written by Lavanya Gupta, from the school of Law, Ansal University. It is an exhaustive article which deals with various modes of execution under the factors of studying driving an individual towards the commission of crimes.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Children were considered a gift from God and were great people as well as national assets. To provide the opportunity of the environment of socio-culture to grow and become responsible citizens, physically fit, mentally alert, and morally healthy and we as an individual, parents, guardians, and society teach these children to understand the right way of doing things and use education for good deeds. The factors and the causes of crime also affect the crime rate and become the eternal source of debate. Certain factors were not established by anybody with factors that were most important and took second place. The rate of crimes fluctuated interestingly within a specific country over time. In this article, we discuss the history, litigation, juvenile crimes, and some amendments to understand the topic.
Meaning of juvenile
Juvenile means a very young person, teenager, adolescent, or underage. The word juvenile means children who haven’t reached in the sense of adult age who are still childish or immature. The term child is interchangeably used for another term called juvenile. In legal terms, juvenile means a child hasn’t attained the age at which he/she could be held liable for the criminal acts under the law of the country as an adult person. The child was known as a juvenile who has committed certain acts or omissions allegedly in the violation of any law and was declared to be an offence. In terms of the law, the person who has not attained the age of eighteen is known as a juvenile. It has legal significance. The juvenile should not be treated as an adult according to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 if he/she was involved in any criminal act for the trial and punishment in the court of law.
History
The first litigating deal in India with children in conflict with the law or child who has committed a crime was the Apprentices Act, 1850. Any child under the age of fifteen years was provided as an apprentice if he/she would have been found in committing petty offences. The Reformatory Schools Act, 1897 also came into effect and provided children who were up to the age of fifteen years were sentenced to imprisonment and sent to the reformatory cells. To provide care, protection, development, and rehabilitation to these juveniles the Parliament enacted the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 after independence. This Act brought the uniform system throughout the country. Section 2(a) of this act defined the term juvenile as if the boy who hasn’t turned to the age of 16 years and the girl who hadn’t attained the age of 18 years. The bar of the age was raised to 18 years for both girls and boys in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 which was enacted by the Parliament.
Present legislation
The juvenile conflicts under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 with the law or juvenile offenders were kept in an observation home because children need more care and protection during the pendency of proceedings when they are kept before the competent authority in the children home. The detainment of juveniles is only done for the maximum period of 3 years irrespective of the gravity of the offence committed by him and then he will be remanded to a special home. The child was immunized with less than the age of 18 years at the time of commission with the alleged offence from the trial through Criminal Court or any punishment under Section 17 of Criminal Law of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000. The new Act has the purpose to rehabilitate the child and assimilate him/her into mainstream society. If the child was still reformed with the possibility due to the tender age and lack of maturity with the responsibility of the State to protect and reform the child is known as the rationale.
Juvenile crimes and other factors
No person is a born criminal but circumstances make that person so. From inside and outside the socio-cultural environment of the home plays a significant role in shaping a person’s life and overall personality. The most common cause of the crimes by a juvenile due to poverty, drug abuse, anti-social peer groups, availability of firearms easily, single-parent children, family violence, rapidly changing societies, etc. as India is concerned about poverty and the effect of media mostly social-media which don’t guide them properly and inclined them towards criminal activities. The biggest clause to force these children towards criminal activities is poverty. Also, the role played by social media today has a more negative impact than the positive imprints on a young mind. Other factors need a great study at later times to analyze.
Rapidly changing societies
The societies were undergone some radical changes in a short space of time and experience the increased crime levels. In South Africa, this could be seen after the fall of Apartheid and the fall of communism in Russia. The effect is related to the unclear reasons for these different types of totalitarian societies on the population of morality. The controls were lessened and saw many opportunities to make a career of crime. The high level of corruption was raised due to new emerging societies. The opportunities make a lot of money by emerging poverty or relative deprivation for a lot of money through corrupt practices that have plagued many governments around the world. The temptations were just great to resist.
The social level of morality
Different communities have different levels of morality as it seemed. Certain societies foster a sense of strength while right or wrong with the attitude is quite different for others. But the view upon murder and theft were not shared by everyone to tell these children about the right or wrong. Crimes seemed to have different cultures to a different view variety differently.
Social tolerance of crime
The crime could be the factor to influence the crime rate if it was tolerated by society. People don’t act as a tale-bearer against others as many cultures have a high level of tolerance. The slightest transgression was reported in other societies by a neighbor. Where it is strongly organized in crimes that were syndicated in existence with the fear of reprisals. People who were victims and others were afraid to speak out of their fears of reprisals.
A criminal class
There is a criminal class in some communities in addition to the working class and the middle class. Into a life of crime, the children were born to become quite skilled in the selected profession. Some of them became pick-pocket or bank robbers. The time spent in jail was more often than not was equivalent to a criminal university where skills were learned and practiced.
Availability of job in poverty and socio-economic conditions
As a cause of crime, we saw poverty. The communities were associated with a high level of crime where poverty was prevalent. Due to poverty, many countries were affected. These countries have very high crime levels. Some have only moderate crime. There is a huge difference in these types of crimes committed in various poor situations and the economic conditions of poor people. In some countries, the level of high violence is also associated with crime. It is simple in others that theft while there were large elements of organized crime involving drugs, prostitution, and racketeering. Nowadays due to this global pandemic, lots of people lost their jobs and those who are goods in online things started doing frauds to make money for their needs.
Statistically, poverty goes hand-in-hand with the crime. Poverty was prevalent in a community that experiences crime for higher levels. Poverty was not itself to lead crimes at higher rates but the factors of poverty were associated and the chronic joblessness was less accessed to the quality of schools, employment, role models, and the real or perceived lack of opportunity. The way to offer crimes for less-advantaged people for access to goods as they may not be afforded otherwise. The prize outweighs the risk to get caught as an impoverished person that may believe to have less to lose than a wealthy person.
The proposed amendment in Juvenile Justice Act, 2000
The increase in the public has major hue and cry in the number of crimes which is being committed by these juveniles and the government decided to present the proposed amendment in the current parliaments’ law itself. This amendment affects the far-reaching criminal justice system. The proposition of the legislation was replaced by the existing Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 as a major brief change.
The offences were defined and classified as petty, serious, and heinous. The increase in the number of serious offences was noticed as committed by a juvenile in the age group of 16-18 years. The recognition of the rights of the victims was alongside the rights of a juvenile and the proposed heinous offences should be dealt with the specialty. If a heinous crime is committed by the child between the age group of 16-18 years were proposed under the Juvenile Justice Board to assess the said crime done by that person as a child or an adult.
The social experts and psychologists consult the Juvenile to make sure that he/she will be aware well about the rights of the Juvenile if any crime was committed as a child and they were provided by the Juvenile Justice Board. The trial of the case shall proceed based on the Board assessment report with the concern of a juvenile who has committed the crime as a child or an adult.
Level of law enforcement
The force of strong police coupled with some high sentences which may reduce the convictions of the crime rate. The on-going debate related to the effectiveness of the death penalty was revolved around the idea of a strong deterrent to reduce the crime and there are some pieces of evidence to support this. For trivial crimes, some countries amputate limbs. The level of crime may be less but still exist in these countries. The greatest influence on the crime levels was perceived honestly in the leadership of the country. There is a little prospect where the government and business were perceived to be corrupt and dishonest in reducing the overall crime levels. This would change the leadership perhaps to a high level of integrity and honesty.
Conclusion
To provide the growing opportunity in a healthy socio-cultural environment to be a responsible citizen who would physically fit, mentally alert, and healthy morally and we as an individual, parents, guardians, and society teach these children to understand the right way of doing things and use education for good deeds. The juvenile should not be treated as an adult according to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 if he/she was involved in any criminal acts for the trial and punishment in the court of law. If the possibility of getting reformed as a child due to the tender age and lack of maturity but the responsibility of the State to reform a child and protect them is known as the rationale. The most common cause of crimes by a juvenile is poverty, drug abuse, anti-social peer groups were the availability of firearms easily, single-parent children, family violence, rapidly changing societies, etc. Nowadays due to this global pandemic, lots of people lost their jobs and those who are goods in online things started doing frauds to make money for their needs. The greatest influence on the crime level lies in the perceived honesty of leadership in the country.
References
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