Juvenile Justice - Concept, Emergence and Issues

The Concept

Juvenile Justice is a broad term and on a conceptual level refers to the complete well being of child and includes mechanism for adoption; ensuring the rights (social, economic and political) of Juveniles as well as assigning reward and punishment in case of delinquency/ deviant behaviour.
Juvenile (in legal sense) is a child who unlike an adult person, having not attained prescribed age, cannot be held liable for his criminal act on account of his inability to distinguish right and wrong. The age criteria for being a juvenile vary from country to country, state to state.
The Emergence
Juvenile Delinquency became a chronic problem ushered by the rapid urbanisation after the Industrial Revolution. It was a time when 100s of indigent children wandered the streets and, many became involved in criminal activity. Initially Children who were convicted of crimes were housed with adult criminals.
Children as young as 7 years old, could stand trial in criminal court for offenses committed and, if found guilty, could be sentenced to prison or even to death.
As soon as the state began to attain its welfare character it was soon realized that children institutionalized with adults were learning adult criminal behaviours and were exiting those institutions ready for life careers in criminality.
Because of this negative influence, separate juvenile court systems and accompanying correctional institutions were developed and the CONCEPT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE CAME INTO BEING. (US being the first country to adopt such a policy in the backdrop of a reform movement)
The 19th-century movement that led to the establishment of the juvenile court in the U.S. had its roots in 16th-century European educational reform movements. These earlier reform movements changed the perception of children from one of ‘miniature adults’ to one of ‘persons with less than fully developed moral and cognitive capacities’.
The Philosophy of Juvenile Justice
The first juvenile courts (In US) operated under the philosophy of “parens patriae”. This philosophy meant the state could act "as a parent," and gave juvenile courts the power to intervene whenever court officials felt intervention was in the best interests of the child. Any offense committed was secondary to the offender. While “parens patriae” was designed to handle youth committing criminal acts, the discretion of this philosophy became increasingly broader and was constantly debated in court. A number of pivotal cases ensued which helped the juvenile justice system to emerge.
By 1910, Many Countries had established juvenile courts and/or probation services. Rather than merely punishing delinquents for their crimes, juvenile courts sought to turn delinquents into productive citizens—through treatment.

Juvenile Justice Issues

The ‘Modern’ ‘Welfare State’ finds itself in a state of predicament in the wake of several issues pertaining to juvenile justice. An amalgam of various issues such as -“Age” “Consciousness of Act” “Treatment Mechanisms” etc- throw the cause of Juvenile Justice into various controversies.

A.) Issue of age

There are various instances round the globe that depict the capability of committing heinous crimes by children as young as 10years old (THE INFAMOUS MURDER OF JAMES BULGER, NIRBHAYA INCIDENT OF DELHI ARE SHOCKING EVIDENCE). Such incidents pose a grave challenge to - ‘the age as a criteria for determining the juvenility’. In this light one may say that it is justifiable to lower the age for a juvenile crime. However, before we reach out a conclusion under a wave of emotions it is imperative to view the other side of the picture as well.
Lowering the age may amount to detention of a crime which may be an outcome of unfortunate circumstances, rather than one’s choice (Ex: Forced under Age Prostitution, Theft because of gross poverty, and a crime by accident etc)
Secondly such a move can increase the vulnerability of several homeless juveniles being implicated in false cases-thereby resulting into Police Atrocities/ Heavy Hand of the Police.
Thirdly, reducing the age contradicts the very purpose behind the principle of Juvenile Justice. It may ignore the innocence and absence of consciousness of the consequences of a wrongful act and closes the doors for reformation altogether.
However, Heinous Crimes primarily amounting to sexual offences must not be construed as acts of misdemeanour. A sexual offence for all practical purposes is an act within the capacity of adulthood and therefore must be treated as the same. Thus, the question of ‘juvenile age’ does not arise if a crime committed entails the attributes of adulthood. Such an offender even if juvenile (legally) must be treated at par with adults.

B.) Issue of Consciousness

This is another issue that relates to the question of age itself. Consciousness of the outcome of an act (criminal) describes the degree of maturity and forms an essential attribute of age. In this light it is often argued that even an adult of the age of 30 who has committed a crime unintentionally should be tried at the juvenile court for the reason that he was not mentally alert.
It implies that a heinous offender completely aware and conscious of his act is mature enough to be tried as an adult. On the other hand it may be questioned whether it is justifiable to detain a full grown adult for an act he is unaware of.

C.) Treatment Mechanisms:
There is another issue that questions the welfare character of the state. Before formulating any punitive law, it is the mandate of a truly welfare state to establish effective mechanisms for the “Character Building” of the Children. State must devise effective proactive and reactive mechanisms for dealing with Juvenile Delinquencies.
It must be remembered that “If... Character is lost everything is lost”.

Some suggestions

a.)Preventive method
• Creating and inspiring a team of private and public agencies devoted to preventive work.
• Giving proper training to the members and staff of all organizations concerned with delinquency control.
• Establishment of child guidance clinics to give appropriate treatment to the disturbed and maladjusted children.
• Education of the family so as to help the parents to realize the importance of giving proper attention to the needs of their young children.
• Giving proper assistance to under-privileged children to build in them good character and law abiding attitude.
• Improving the social environment in slum areas, busy market places, gambling centers etc., to prevent children to get polluted.

b.)Rehabilitative method: Although an effective mechanism aiming at character building may prevent the acts of juvenile delinquency, however nothing is perfect in a real world. Hence in such a scenario the Rehabilitative Method finds a much important relevance.
• Juvenile rehabilitation aims to correct their “misdemeanour” tendencies so that they may not become threats to the society. They are taught to participate in different personality improvement schemes and other worthwhile programs.
• There are several juvenile rehabilitation programs that solicit the participation of the child’s parents in the different programs. This is significant because instilling of moral values should basically come from the home. The presence of the parents in the programs would also make it easier for the child to go back to the community as an honest and responsible individual. Juvenile rehabilitation does not follow a strict list of rules or methods.
• It believes that an effective transformation of offenders is to start rehabilitating them early on. If you have reached out to a child in his early years, there is greater chance that he will not do wrong again. (Thus there are strong chances that a person near the age of 18 may as well be impossible to treat).
• In this way juvenile cases will reduce, as well as adult criminals. The main purpose of the method of rehabilitation is neither to punish nor to take revenge upon the delinquent. The rationale behind this method is to help the delinquent children to get proper guidance and training so that they become normal children and never repeat delinquent acts.
 

By: Chandan Sharma