Question

Given what you know about juvenile delinquency, if government officials asked for your guidance on how to best deal with delinquency, what would you advise them to do, and why? Please keep in mind that delinquency covers a multitude of causes/treatment areas to include family, school, courts, community, etc.

Answer 1

Let’s first talk who is a juvenile ? It literally means childish or immature. So a child is referred as juvenile until he attains the maturity age . Again the question arises which age can be regarded as maturity age ? Across the world, the juvenile age ranges from 10 to 20 years old, Despite every nation having its own juvenile delinquency law we still don’t have a universal definition of it . It differs from country to country.

juvenile delinquency: young children young people, usually defined as being between the ages of 10 and 18, who have in some or the other forms committed some acts which violates the law.

My advice to government officials on how to best deal with delinquency: Before advising on how to deal with delinquency let’s focus on the some basic root causes of such crimes :

• Poverty : it is often seen that the juvenile forced to get into crimes due to poverty . Example is robbery .
• Illiteracy : Children who Are involved in crimes, are mostly from weaker sections of society, where people are less educated.
• Unemployment : unemployment causes crime, and more specifically that youth unemployment  is a key factor in juvenile crime and delinquency.
• cheap labour : Businesses save money as child labour is cheap and kids can be easily exploited. This is another reason why children are involved in crimes when they should be going to school and getting the education.
• ​​​​​​​Family : it’s the family which to most extent affects the personality of the children. The physical , psychological, emotional environment at home influences the children’s behaviour. The abusive environment at home could lead to juvenile delinquency.
• The FRIEND’s Circle : it won’t be exaggeration to say that sometimes a child’s behaviour is mostly influenced by the friend circle than family . As child relates so well with his friends . If his friends are involved in some kind of crimes there are chances that they may make pressure or child himself can get influenced and involve himself in crimes . The apt example for this would be substance abuse .
• Genetic factors and psychological factors : there are some genes which are responsible for juveniles getting involved in crimes . Anti social behaviour is inheritable . It is when a individual does not want to be around others, with draws from physical contact and does not behavior appropriate for the situation. Antisocial Personality Disorder is the mental illness linked with serial killers such as Jeffery Dahmer and Ted Bundy. Individual  in early life usually displays symptoms of ASP, but the true manifestation is in the teen years some psychological factors are : Conduct Disorder is psychological disorder  in childhood and adolescence characterised by disruptive, antisocial behavior. Example is stealing , rape , sexually abusing others

• Social media effect : in the recent past there have been cases where the child has been reported to be involved in crimes due to social media effect or the some violent part of movie he or she has recently watched .

the answer of giving guidelines to the government officials on dealing with juvenile delinquency lies in the root causes -

1. Dealing with poverty : though it’s a global problem and can’t be rectified completely. But the basics amenities ( food , shelter etc) should be provided to its citizens . In such cases child won’t have to involve in the crime for food .
2. illiteracy and unemployment: Again the basic education should be provided to all . Infact the government should mostly focus on occupational and vocational training which will make the youth to get  job immediately.
3. Cheap labour : when the above mentioned points are taken care there are chances that children will not go for labour’s . My advice would be to have a strict law against the child labour which should have zero tolerance for it .
4. Family : The government can not reach and get to know the each family . But there should be a trained and qualified counsellor or psychologist made mandatory for each school and colleges to have . When a child is disturbed at home it will surely affect his behaviour which should be reported to the psychologist by his teacher or supervisor.
5. The friends circle : Awareness program should be campaigned over and time again at school/ colleges and communities to create awareness against the adverse effects of substance uses and other offences where children involve themselves due to peer pressure.
6. Genetic factors / Psychological factors: as mentioned in the root cause such anti social behaviour gets manifested in child behaviour in some or the other way which should not be taken lightly by the teacher and should be reported to the mental professionals at earliest .
7. social media effect: there should be a strict law for the violence shown on screen . The video games etc . There should be either a age related restriction or such violent media should be banned completely.

Conclusion - As I have listed my guidance to the government officials on how to deal with delinquency. I would like to emphasise on the importance of including the moral values on school and community level like churches , temples etc . Also There should always be a scope of improvement at the court level while punishing the children. To conclude, the responsibility should not only be lying on government but each of should take the moral responsibility of creating a better world for the children as they are future of our nation .