BASIC CONCEPTS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Child
A person who is below eighteen (18) years of age.
Filipino Child (PD 603)
A minor or a youth; any person below 18 years old, a boy or a girl at any age between infancy and
adolescence; however, the law includes infants and even unborn children.
A person who is below 18 years old or those over but unable to fully take care of themselves from abuse,
neglect, cruelty, exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition.
Dependent Child
A person who is without a parent, guardian or custodian, or whose parents, guardian or custodian for
good cause desires to be relieved of his care and custody, and is dependent upon the public for support.
Abandoned Child
A person who has no proper parental care or guardianship, or whose parents or guardian has deserted
him for a period of at least six continuous months.
Neglected Child
A person whose basic needs have been deliberately unattended to or inadequately attended to,
physically or emotionally, by his parents or guardians.
Physical Neglect
It occurs when the child is malnourished, ill clad and without proper shelter.
Emotional Neglect
It occurs when a child is raped, seduced, maltreated, exploited, overworked or made to work under
streets or public places, or when placed in moral danger, or exposed to drugs, alcohol, gambling,
prostitution and other vices.
Disabled Child
It includes mentally retarded, physically handicapped, emotionally disturbed and mentally ill children,
children with cerebral palsy and those inflicted with similar afflictions.
Mentally Retarded Child
A person who is (a) socially incompetent, that is, socially inadequate, occupationally incompetent and
unable to manage his own affairs; (b) mentally subnormal; (c) intellectually retarded from birth or early
age; (d) retarded at maturity; (5) mentally deficient as a result of constitutional origin through heredity or
diseases or (6) essentially incurable.

Physically Handicapped Child

A person who is crippled, deaf-mute, or otherwise, suffers from a defect which restricts his means of action
or communication with others.
Emotionally Disturbed Child
A person who, although not afflicted with insanity or mental defect, is unable to maintain normal social
relations with others and the community in general due to emotional problems or complexes.
Mentally Ill Child
 A person who have behavioral disorder, whether functional or organic, which is of such a degree of
severity as to require professional help or hospitalization.
Commitment or Surrender of a Child
It is the legal act of entrusting a child to the care of the Department or any duly licensed child placement
or child caring agency or individual by the court, parent or guardian.
Involuntarily Committed Child
A person whose parents, have been permanently and judicially deprived of parental authority due to
abandonment; substantial, continuous or repeated neglect; abuse or incompetence to discharge
parental responsibility.
Voluntarily Committed Child
A person whose parents’ knowingly and unwillingly relinquished parental authority to the Department or
any duly licensed child-placement or child-caring agency or individual.
Child-placing or Child-Placement Agency
It refers to a private non-profit institution or government agency duly licensed and accredited by the
Department to provide comprehensive child welfare services, including but not limited to receiving
application for adoption or foster care, evaluating the prospective adoptive or foster parents and
preparing the home study report.
Child-Caring Agency
It refers to a private non-profit institution or government agency duly licensed and accredited by the
Department that provides twenty-four hour residential care services for abandoned, orphaned,
neglected, involuntarily or voluntarily committed children.
Guardian Ad Litem
A person appointed by the court where the case is pending for a child sought to be committed to protect
his best interests.
Child in Conflict with the Law
A person who at the time of the commission of the offense is below eighteen (18) years of age but not
less than nine (9) years of age.

Age of Criminal Responsibility

It is the age when a child who is above fifteen (15) but below eighteen (18) years of age commits an
offense with discernment.
Discernment
It refers to the mental capacity to understand the difference between right and wrong and its
consequences.
Restorative Justice
It is the principle that requires a process of resolving conflicts with the maximum involvement of the victim,
the offender and the community.
Youth Detention Center
 It refers to a government-owned or operated agency providing rehabilitative facilities where the child in
conflict with the law maybe physically restricted pending court disposition of the charge against him.
Juvenile
He is a child or a young person, who under the legal system maybe dealt with for an offense in a manner
different from that of an adult.
These are young people regarded as immature or one whose mental as well as emotional faculties are
not fully developed, thus, making them incapable of taking full responsibility of their actions.
He is a person subject to juvenile court proceedings because a statutorily define event or condition
caused by or affecting that person was alleged to have occurred while his or her age was below the
statutorily specified age limit or original description of juvenile court.
Delinquency
Delinquency refers to the failure to perform an act required by law, or the non-performance of a duty or
obligation that is mandated by existing law or rule.
Delinquency refers to any action; course or conduct that deviate from acts approved by the majority of
people. It is a description of acts that do not conform to the accepted rules, norms and mores of the
society.
It refers to any misconduct or misbehavior that is tantamount to a felony or an offense.
Delinquency is distinct from crime in the sense that the former maybe in the form of violation of a law,
ordinance, or rule but it is punishable only by a small fine or a short-term imprisonment or both.
Juvenile Delinquency
It is used to describe a large number of disapproved behaviors of children or youths. In this sense, anything
that the youth does which other do not like is called Juvenile Delinquency.
It refers to any action or conduct of children or youth that are not conventional or not normally accepted
by the people.
It is likewise refers to any misbehavior or deviant behavior committed by children such as those minor
offenses or misdemeanors, or those acts defined by juvenile codes or laws.
Children’s offenses typically include delinquent acts which would be considered as an offense if
committed by adults.
Status Offenses
These are certain acts or omission which may not be punishable if committed by adults, but become
illegal only because the person is under age and the act was committed primarily by children, minors,
juveniles, youthful offenders or other person in need of supervision or assistance.
Examples:
- sexual misconduct or immoral conduct
- use of profane language
- running away from home
- smoking, drinking, or use of prohibited substances
- disobedience to parents or school officials
- association with criminals or delinquent friends
 - repeated disregard for misuse of lawful parental authority
Parens Patriae
It simply states that the state had the right to benevolently intervene in the care and custody of the child.
Simply, the state shall become the parents of the child.