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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Why the young are different-Ved Kumari

Why the young are different-Ved Kumari

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published Published on Jan 14, 2013   modified Modified on Jan 14, 2013
-The Indian Express

The juvenile justice system should aim to reform, rather than punish, offenders

The anguish and anger evoked by the sheer brutality of the gangrape in Delhi has led to the demand that the accused be subject to the most severe punishment. Voices have been raised seeking the death penalty and chemical or physical castration. As one of the accused is below 18 years of age and cannot be “punished” due to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children )Act, 2000 (JJA), there is a demand for amending this law by lowering the cut-off age for defining who a child is and/ or providing for the exclusion of children committing violent offences from the JJA and the imposition of life imprisonment without parole.

In such an emotionally charged atmosphere, it is politically expedient to introduce the changes to assuage the public sentiments. But will women be safer after the demanded changes are made?

Retribution and deterrence are the traditional objectives of punishment, though now, reformation during imprisonment and reformation without punishment are accepted as better approaches to prevention of crime, especially in the case of children. In India, we have accepted the policy of “no imprisonment for children” for any offence since the Children Act in 1960, which was followed as a model by other states that enacted their own such acts after 1960. This approach was uniformly applied to the whole of India by the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986. Spurred by the recommendation of the UN committee under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the JJA, 2000, raised the age of juvenility from 16 to 18 years for boys, and girls till the age of 18 were already covered under the law. With this increase, there was apprehension that lakhs of cases would be added within the ambit of the juvenile justice system. However, those fears proved to be baseless, as crime committed by children increased by less than 8,000 cases, from 9,267 in 2000 to 16,509 in 2001. The rate of crime by children (that is, the number of children committing offences per lakh of the population) has not seen a substantial increase in the last decade (it has gone from 0.9 in 2000 to 2.1 in 2011). Hence, the clamour to lower the age of juvenility is not supported by crime data relating to children in India.

The problem of juvenile delinquency in countries with large numbers of children involved in crime poses different challenges. For example, the total number of children arrested for an offence was 11,29,456 in the US (according to FBI data) as compared to 33,887 children (according to the National Crime Records Bureau) in India in 2011.

Offences committed by children have to be seen in the context of their neglect and abuse. Offences against children have increased three-fold from 10,814 in 2001 to 33,098 in 2011. Even so, the increase in crime by children has not increased at the same rate. It is time to focus first on their care and protection before raising accusing fingers towards children for their actions. They have no control over their surroundings and try to cope with the hardships of life without parental care. On the streets without parental and adult care, they end up in the company of all kinds of persons.

While the number of children in need of care and protection runs into crores, the number of children who may be provided residential care does not exceed even one lakh. In this scenario, when a child is found to have committed an offence, it is more the result of the failure of their family and the state to take care of them. Providing and ensuring family care to children is a better measure to prevent crimes committed by them than providing for serious punishment. Punishment for offenders may satisfy the need for revenge, but it is not a means of preventing further crime.

The need to reform and care for children is even more necessary as they have a long life to live after the offence is committed. Awarding them the death penalty will be barbarous in a civilised society and life imprisonment without parole would place an unnecessary burden on the taxpayer. Sentencing them to long-term imprisonment is more likely to result in the release of hardened criminals from prisons, rather than reformed and responsible citizens. After all, it has long been accepted that it is the certainty rather than the severity of punishment that deters.

The writer is a professor of law at the University of Delhi and former chairperson, Delhi Judicial Academy

The Indian Express, 14 January, 2013, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/why-the-young-are-different/1058922/


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