Reforms required in Juvenile Justice System

A change in the system or law is required in order to make it better. Any act or law which is
being made is done keeping in mind a vision behind it, which is to be achieved. We live in a
world which keeps on changing with the time, though the vision remains the same but
measures to achieve it may change over a period of time. So, it becomes essential for us to
bring reform in various acts and laws in order to keep pace with the changing environment
around us.

Before talking about the reforms, let us talk about the problems in Juvenile Justice. The
problems will focus on areas critical to continued change in juvenile justice:

 Reforms to mental health needs;

 Stronger legal defence for needy youth; and
 Interventions for youth charged with status offences (activities that are criminalized
for those under the age of 18, e.g., truancy, running away, curfew violations).

Mental Health & Juvenile Justice

The Problem:

 Each year over a million of children, youth and young adults formally come into
contact with the juvenile justice system.
 Of those children, youth and young adults, a large number (65-70%) have at least one
diagnosable mental health need and 20-25% have serious emotional issues.
 Over one-third of youth involved with juvenile justice system experience mental
health problems, most of them can be safely and more effectively treated in
community settings than in juvenile justice system.

The Solution:

We need to establish a system of care, focused on meeting the mental health and related needs
of the youth who get in trouble with the law through comprehensive community-based
services and supports. In doing so, we not only have the opportunity to develop an
understanding around the unique challenges this population presents, but also to decide how
best to overcome those challenges through planned and thoughtful programs.

Youth in Juvenile Justice System

The Problem:

 It has been seen that youth who have been neglected and abused are at high risk for
early onset of delinquency. These youth are also at increased risk for mental health
concerns, educational problems, occupational difficulties and public health and safety
issues
 Dependent youth over the age of eight are very likely to be (or to become) involved
with the delinquency matters.

The Solution:

The first step which should be taken is to ensure that there should be no cases of child abuse
and if there are any then effective measures should be taken to ensure that these things stop.
Effective measures should also be taken to educate kids so that have knowledge about what is
right and wrong and what are the consequences of a wrongful act.

Youth-Specific or Status Offenses

The Problem:

 Many youth get in trouble for the activities that are criminalized because they are
under the age of 18. These are known as “status offenses”, and it includes running
away from home, unruly or ungovernable truancy1

The Solution:
1
Juvenile Delinquency in India-MedIND
Status offenses are often indicative of personal, familial, community, and systematic issues.
Therefore it becomes the primary duty of the parents, the family, the society of the children to
educate them and to make them aware of all these offences and their consequences. And if
someone is seen committing these offences then it becomes the prime duty of the individual
to stop the children from committing them.

Reforming Juvenile Justice

The goal of juvenile justice system is to support the prosocial development of youth who
became involved in the system and thereby ensure the safety of communities. The main aims
of the juvenile courts and affiliated agencies are to hold the youth accountable for their
wrongdoings, prevent any further wrongdoings, and treat them fairly.

The Juvenile Justice Acts creates a juvenile justice system according to which persons up to
the age of 18 years who commits any offence punishable under the law, cannot be subjected
to imprisonment in the adult justice system but are instead subjected to counselling, or
advice, or performing of community service, or payment of a fine or at most they are being
send to remand home for a period of three years. Juvenile can be defined as a child who has
not attained the age of 18 and cannot be held liable for criminal acts committed by him. The
juvenile is a child who is alleged to have committed or violated certain laws which declares
the act or omission on the part of the child as an offence.

The Constitution of India guarantees Fundamental Rights to all the children in the country
and empowers the state to make special provisions for the children. The Directive Principles
of State Policy specifically guides the state in securing the tender age of children from abuse
and ensuring that the children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy
and peaceful manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. The juvenile justice system is
based on the principles of promoting, protecting and safeguarding the rights of children. The
Juvenile Justice Act creates a juvenile justice system in which persons up to the age of 18
who have committed an offence punishable under any law is not subjected to imprisonment
in the adult justice system but instead, will be subjected to advice, community service,
counselling, payment of a fine or, at the most would be sent to a remand home for a period of
three years.

However, the interest in the protection of juveniles also should be balanced with interest of
protection of the vulnerable members of the society from violent crimes by the person who
are under the age of 18 years. According to the reports of National Crime Records Bureau
(NCRB), the percentage of crimes committed by the juvenile in 2018 and 2019 has
significantly increased as compared to the crimes committed by the juveniles in the previous
years. The NCRB statistics says that India is not in the throes of a general crime wave by
juveniles, but the crimes against women are very troubling. The number of rapes committed
by juveniles has kept on doubling over decades and that is a matter of concern.

As per the reports of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) the percentage of crimes
committed by juveniles has significantly increased over the last decade. The involvement of
juveniles in serious crimes like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, abduction and rapes
has increased significantly and has raise concerns in the entire nation. After the 2012
Nirbhaya Gang Rape case in Delhi, many debates and discussions pointed towards the softer
approach of juvenile justice system to serious offences. It has been found that youngsters can
be as brutal as adults, which has forced the concerned authorities to reanalyze and the
definition and approach to juvenile delinquents in India. The NCRB data indicates that the
crimes are being specially committed by those under the age group of 16-18 years. NCRB
data given below shows the trends of juvenile offenders.

Years Cases Registered

Against Juvenile Under total cognizable IPC
Conflict crimes
With the Law
2005 18,939 18,22,602
2006 21,088 18,78,293
2007 22,865 19,89,673
2008 24,535 20,93,379
2009 23,926 21,21,345
2010 22,740 22,24,831
2011 25,125 23,25,575
2012 27,936 23,87,188
2013 31,725 26,47,722
2014 33,526 28,51,563
2015 31,396 29,49,499
Various reasons can be given for the rise in juvenile delinquency. According to psychiatrists
and woman rights activists, easy access to pornography, changing food habits can be
attributed as a cause for this change in behaviour of the juveniles, who show rising
involvement in sexual offences. It has also been pointed out that youngsters are unable to
control their biological impulses prompted by hormonal changes. There are more cases of
rape in urban areas as compared to rural areas, as societal control in cities has weakened.
According to DNA correspondents, the weakening social ties at community, peer and family
level in India is responsible for this rising trend of juvenile crimes. The families as a basic
unit of human society is getting weaker in urban areas, with lesser family control on children.
Peer groups are becoming less active, with the spending time mainly indoors watching
television or playing games on mobiles and computers. The game involves lot of plots of
violence, killing others etc, which instils violence in young minds. The mind of youth is place
where a lot of information keeps on gathering, there is no way to filter these information and
tell them as to what is right and what is wrong. Further these days’ children have less options
of venting out their frustration and negativities leading to teenage aggression.

Due to this trend, legal definition of child should come into question. With the trend of
involvement of juveniles in violent crimes in India, state intervention is required in bringing
certain reforms and in bringing new legal provision. The new law should take into
consideration the involvement of juveniles in heinous crimes and bring out certain reforms. If
a child of 16 years or above commits a heinous crime, a preliminary assessment of his mental
and physical maturity must be made by the juvenile justice board. Level of maturity should
be matched to his capacity to commit such offence, his ability to understand the consequences
of his offence and circumstances after committing such offence. After the Nirbhaya case
some serious actions should be taken against the increasing involvement of juveniles between
the age group of 16 to 18 years in involvement of heinous crimes. Now it is with the law
makers to decide whether the juveniles under the age of 16 to 18 who commits heinous
crimes should be considered as an adult or not.

The improvement of the juvenile justice system is a gradual process. It requires intensive and
continuous follow-up as well as long term commitment rather than a series of ‘ad hoc’
exercises and ‘knee-jerk’ responses. The training programs are recommended to be based on
participatory techniques that promote sensitization and behavioural changes among the
various individuals responsible for the working of the juvenile justice system. Training also
creates an atmosphere where it give opportunities for the individuals to interact among
themselves and get a better understanding of the restrictions and barriers at different levels.

Though the Indian government has been making lots of efforts to deal with the problem, and
has taken progressive and bold steps in this direction, more effective measures are required
with respect to its implementation. There should be provisions for special Police unit dealing
with juveniles at every police station. So, when there are cases of juvenile delinquency or
when neglected children are taken to police, the police department will be able to deal with
these cases in a specialised and proper manner, because it has been seen that the police
personnel are not very sensitive to the issues that come up. It is very important to make sure
that strong steps are taken to make effective implementation of laws pertaining to juvenile
delinquency, so we are able to deal with the problem in a holistic manner.

It is very important for the authorities involved in the juvenile justice system to build
effective communication and partnership with the civil society. Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGO’s) have the ability to provide community-based life skills programs,
community work opportunity, group counselling, and open custody group homes for children
involved in conflict with law. It is also very important to monitor the functioning of
Observation Homes and Shelter Homes. These special places are meant for reformation of
juveniles and it is often seen that these become breeding grounds for more offences. Rather
than effectively handling the problem and counselling the juveniles, these places often creates
an atmosphere for the resocialization of juveniles into criminal world. Instances of juveniles
of Observation Homes indulging in serious offences are quite many. Therefore it is very
essential that these situations should be handled very tactfully for the reformative and
rehabilitative measures of the juveniles.

Community participation and sensitization in matters related to juvenile delinquency is also

very important .In the administration of Juvenile justice, preventive measures are very
important. For this purpose, the people living in the society are sensitized about the issues of
the neglected children and children living in difficult situations, they can play a very
important role in rehabilitation. It has reflected earlier that families are important agents of
social control and socialization. So families along with other primary groups of the society
can be more involved in preventive measures.
No talk about the mental and physical maturity of juveniles

The juvenile justice acts require amendments because it does not talk about the mental or
physical maturity of the juvenile. “Actus Rea” i.e. guilty act and “Mens Rea” i.e. guilty mind
are the two main components of any crime in law. When these two components are proved in
the court of law, then only the accused can be convicted. Looking into the case of juveniles,
the Actus Rea part of the offence is protected under the juvenile law and the Mens Rea part is
never taken into consideration because as such there are no actual parameters on which it can
be judged.

Now, by having no parameters about the physical or mental maturity of the juvenile is like
giving a license to all the matured, cruel type of people under 18 years of age to live with full
impunity and commit any crime of any level and then walk around freely without any fear of
getting a severe punishment on the basis of them being under the age of 18 years and being
covered under the Juvenile Justice Act.

The mental maturity of the juvenile is to be judged on the fact that whether he was fully
aware and conscious during the execution of the crime or not. If this is not the case then
adults who are 35 years of age and who has committed a crime unintentionally should put
under trial at the juvenile justice court for the reason that he was not mentally alert during the
execution of the crime. The age should not be a reason to exempt anyone who has brutally
raped or has murdered someone when he was completely conscious and aware about what he
was doing. A hard step as early as possible can be a warning to many young minds who grew
up today and design their perspective for tomorrow considering the handling of law in their
hands just for any other reason.

Sending of a convict of heinous crime to remand home is not going to stop

others from committing crimes
Often it is seen that juveniles indulged in heinous crimes like murder or rape are send to
remand home for a period of three years or more. But this does not stop others to stop
committing these crimes. The basic purpose of any law in a country is for its smooth
functioning without any disturbance or chaos. But in our country, the Juvenile Act seems to
defeat the basic purpose of law. By giving a punishment of imprisonment for just a period of
three years and that too in an environment which has a home atmosphere for heinous crimes
like rapes and murders does not seem to the meet the ends of the justice for which the law
was enacted.

Anti Social Elements may use children as a means of conducting heinous

crimes

Following the Juvenile Act blindly without providing it any scope for flexibility to meet the
ends of justice or the ultimate intention behind the enactment of the act is ultimately heading
towards an altogether very different situation of which no one would have ever thought of.
This strict abidance of law provides a ‘boon’ for the actual master minds or doers of the
crime. They are hiring the needy and poor minors in exchange of some amount of money to
execute their criminal act because they know very well that the Juvenile Justice Act would act
as a safeguard for them and at the maximum level they would be under imprisonment for a
period of 3 years, no matter how heinous the crime is. Instead of having fear of the Juvenile
Justice Act, they are using it as a measure to commit their crimes through minors.

Juvenile Justice Act is unconstitutional and it violates the right to life by

protecting the criminals.

The primary purpose of any law in the country is to provide justice for the victim by
punishing the accused of the crime for his wrongdoing. But the Juvenile Justice Act seems to
be defeating this purpose in a way that it provides a shield to the criminals, as at max they are
only awarded imprisonment for a period of 3 years, even if the crime was heinous and
grievous such as rape and murder, on the basis of an unorthodox reasoning that they are under
the age of 18 years. But what about the mental, physical and reputational harm that has been
caused to the victim due to the heinous act. Crimes like rape, is a lifelong stigma for the girl
and her family. In most of the rape cases, the victims are shunned from the society and are
left unmarried just because she was not physically strong enough to fight from her freedom
from the clutches of those monsters who raped her. Many offenders are often seen walking
free after serving their minimal period of sentence after being declared as a juvenile.

Since, in this situation the Juvenile Justice Act seems to defeat the very purpose of law in the
country, its constitutionality can be challenged.

Laws should be dynamic in nature

The laws are always expected to be dynamic in nature and to keep on changing with the
changing times. It is very famous saying that things which will not change with the change in
time will ultimately result in a failure, and the same applies in the case of laws. A society is
not rigid or static, it is dynamic, and it changes with the change in time. It is not wrong to
rehabilitate and reform a child in conflict with law, however in doing it we should not send a
signal in the society which indicates that minors can commit any short of heinous crimes and
get away just with a minor penalty. Therefore, it is required to take into account the mental
maturity of the person and not just the numerical age while deciding the case. And also the
facilities at remand home should improve so that real rehabilitation takes place.

In today’s world, with the increase influence of social media on children has resulted in
children being exposed to psychological, physical and sexual threats. The need of the hour is
to build a strong character for our future generations. Society should indulge in a procedure
which guides and supervises children during their learning ages so that they learn to respect
others and their rights. RTE Act should be strengthen by including children up to 18 years
into education as education has a transformative effect on any person and it trains an
individual to tackle difficult situations in life and most importantly the patriarchal attitude of
the society towards female should change.