PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

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 INDEX

SERIAL CONTENT PAGE

NUMBER NUMBER
1 ABSTRACT 01

2 CHAPTER 1 01 – 02
3 CHAPTER 2 02 – 04
4 CHAPTER 3 05 – 11
5 CHAPTER 4 11 – 15
6 CONCLUSION 15

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 PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY1

CHAPTER 1

This essay is written to make you understand the psychology of a juvenile delinquent in
comparison to the individual that is considered to be normal or considered an adult. In this
paper, everything would be discussed about the mindset of a juvenile from when he commits a
crime, why he does it, and what is the theory which led him to commit a crime. Every child is not
a criminal, the circumstances, the timeline, the parenting, society and there are many other
aspects which turns a child into a criminal and to understand these we will be researching into
many different sources of statistics. There will be a portion dedicated to evaluating the brain
itself and which are affected during certain activities. There are also some laid out theories
which state that delinquency is heredity or is a learned behaviour and most importantly we will
look into criminal psychology. Ultimately the paper will conclude reminding the reader of the
most valuable statistics to suggest that there are many contributions and aspects to juvenile
delinquency and that must be taken into account because if we can understand these aspects then
we can help in calming them by getting them the help they need.

KEYWORDS -: Psychology, juvenile, crime, delinquency, statistics.

INTRODUCTION

Juvenile delinquency has its history from the very beginning of the human civilization but was
not a problem during the olden days in the 2nd world war it started becoming the problem of the
developed countries but as there is advancement in the science and technology, the evil of
delinquency crept in the developing as well as underdeveloped societies. Delinquent or
anti-social behaviour of the juvenile is ten to be destructive and harmful for not only the society
but also to one's own life. Delinquency halts the development of the juveniles as well as that of
the society it has cost thousands of lives of innocent children.

According to the legal definition, 'juvenile delinquency' is seen as behaviour of an individual

1
Author -: Mansha Gosain, 4th year Student at Amity Law School, Noida

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who may not have yet reached the age of adulthood as specified in the relevant national or state
legislation that violates the criminal law.

The psychology of crime tries to give an explanation of how some people deviate from the social
norms and choose to commit crimes. It is also a tool commonly used in the investigation process
that helps investigators interview suspects effectively. Throughout history, people have tried to
explain why a person would commit crimes.2 Some people consider a life of crime better than a
regular job as it is a much easier way to earn more money.3

When a child grows up in a poor family environment, he or she will often turn to a gang instead.
Receiving nothing at home, the young individual seeks a gang, where he or she may acquire
different levels of respect from the other members.4 Gangs, which in actuality are only based
upon a desire for materialism (drugs, alcohol, money, etc.) always require the crime to be
committed. And some people turn to them because of understanding they would have about the
situations and cannot possibly judge them, they get a sense of security which they do not get with
other peers but in dis way, they are lead into the dark path of crime. Because a young individual
finally feels a degree of acceptance, he or she will not turn down a request to commit a crime and
risk losing position in the gang.5 These behaviours and gang involvement follow one throughout
their lifetime, once more continuing the cycle of violence. These teens are unknowingly making
criminals of the future generations of their families by being in gangs themselves.

CHAPTER 2

STATISTICAL OVERVIEW

Juvenile delinquency or crime by kids beneath the age of 18 years keeps on being a subject of
conversation following the association of a juvenile in the Nirbhaya assault case that shook the
country in December 2012. In India, the quantity of juvenile delinquents has risen a long way
over the most recent couple of years. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, 23, 25,575

2
(May 15, 2020, 12:00 p.m.) www.info.bezern.com
3
Causes of crime (May 15, 2020, 12:15 p.m.) www.law.jrank.org
4
Supra Note 2.
5
Juvenile Delinquency: Psychological Concepts (May 15, 2020, 12:25 p.m.) www.ukessay.com

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arguments were enlisted against juveniles under IPC violations in 2011. The number consistently
rose to 29, 49,400 of every 2015. The most recent 'Wrongdoing in India' report distributed by
NCRB for the year 2018 expressed that a sum of 31,591 violations submitted by juveniles were
accounted for in 2018. Maharashtra alone represented 19% of these cases.6

The quantity of 'Juveniles in conflict with law', as indicated by NCRB, mirrors the announced
number of wrongdoings submitted by youngsters beneath 18 years old. Maharashtra detailed the
biggest number of cases under this classification in 2018, representing practically 19% of the
national aggregate. Not a long ways behind, Madhya Pradesh represented 16.6% of the
violations. By chance, Madhya Pradesh announced the best number of such cases in 2017. Delhi
with 8.6% of the cases was third in the rundown. The best 10 states together represented 81.7%
of the cases in 2018.

99.3% of the juveniles associated with these cases where young men and around seventy-five per
cent of the juveniles were between 16 to 18 years old. An aggregate of 382 juveniles or about 1%
of all were beneath 12 years old.

Raise the Age becomes effective in 2019 -: The greatest change in the report is that, compelling
December 2019, North Carolina, African American will stop consequently charging 16 and
17-year-olds as grown-ups in the criminal framework instead of the juvenile framework. This is
because of the ongoing entry of the Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Act7.

From considers, it is seen that general culpable beginning expanding quickly from age 13 and
tops somewhere in the range of 17 and 20 years and afterwards begins to decay abruptly in the
'20s and '30s. Furthermore, paces of property affronting begin expanding quickly and top around
age 14 – 16 years and structure vicious violations they start to top at around 17 – 20 years.
Further longitudinal examinations have demonstrated that culpable is most noteworthy during
the individual's immature age than later (Agnew, 2009)

6
Pavithra K M More than 99% of the Juveniles apprehended for crimes in 2018 are Boys
(May 15, 2020, 12:30 p.m.) www.factly.in
7
Juvenile justice report: In 2019, 17 – year – old will no longer be charged as adults in NC (May 15, 2020, 12:40 p.m.)
www.wral.com

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According to the reports of the national wrongdoing records authority (NCRB) entitles
"wrongdoing in India 2011" and wrongdoing in India 2012 the level of violations carried out by
juveniles when contrasted with absolute violations has not altogether expanded from 2011 –
2012. As per the NCRB insights, India isn't in the pains of a general wrongdoing wave by
juveniles. Be that as it may, the NCRB measurements identifying with brutal wrongdoings by
juveniles against ladies are upsetting. "Wrongdoing in India 2011 "proposes that the number of
assaults submitted by juveniles has dramatically increased over the previous decade from 399
assaults in 2001 to 858 assaults in 2010. Wrongdoing in India 2012 records that the absolute
number of assaults submitted by juveniles more than twofold over from 485 of every 2002 to
1149 of every 2011. As the information proposes, somewhere in the range of 2011 and 2012
alone, there was a monstrous increment in occasions of assault by juveniles by about 300, which
is nearly as much as the expansion in such cases over the whole earlier decade. This expansion
alone revises the JJ basic. (Viswanathan A., 2013)

There are at any rate 2,225 kid guilty parties carrying out an existence without any chance to
appeal punishments in U.S jails for wrongdoings carried out before they were age 18. While a
large number of the youngster guilty parties are currently grown-ups, 16 per cent were
somewhere in the range of 13 and 15 years of age at the time they perpetrated their violations.
An expected 59 per cent were condemned to existence without any chance to appeal for their
first-historically speaking criminal conviction. Forty-two states as of now have laws permitting
kids to get existence without any chance to appeal sentences. In 26 expresses, the sentence of
existence without any chance to appeal is compulsory for any individual who is seen as
blameworthy of submitting first-degree murder, paying little heed to age. As indicated by the
report, 93 per cent of youth wrongdoers serving existence without the chance for further appeal
was sentenced for homicide. Be that as it may, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
found that an expected 26 per cent were indicted for "lawful offence murder," which holds that
anybody associated with the commission of genuine wrongdoing during which somebody is
slaughtered is likewise liable of homicide, regardless of whether the individual didn't actually or
straightforwardly cause the demise.

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 CHAPTER 3

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE OF YOUTH CRIMES

Hereditary and environmental factors play a considerable role in the development of delinquent
and criminal behaviour. As the individual grows older alongside the influences of his or her
“norm,” negative behaviours may develop as well.8 Those that tend to commit crimes tend to
show signs of traits such as aggressiveness or constantly acting impulsively. Such traits
demonstrate the desire to defy authority, which is evident in every criminal.

Aside from those characteristics, one who becomes a delinquent is typically more socially
withdrawn and reserved. More often than not, these are caused by a traumatic event or series of
events in the delinquent’s childhood. As he or she grows up, he will be characterized by a sense
of defiance and with a skewed vision of the social norm. Because the delinquent is not, socially
speaking, similar to others, becoming social or talking to others is greatly difficult. However, this
is irrelevant, for many delinquents avoid unnecessary social contact altogether. Many criminals
are centrally based and disregard the well-being of others (tied tightly into the idea of solitude),
Aside from this, he or she will be very self – centred and focusing on one’s well – being.

Despite behavioural patterns that may be going on for generations, there is a way to alter these
mental standings in certain people to help them stray away from the negativities of a life of
crime.9 One of the most significant therapeutic methods is to find a way to help the delinquent
comprehend and relate to the idea of nurturing, beneficial social connections with other people.
This is the final result of a potentially long process of assisting a delinquent to help with his or
her mental state of being.

Delinquency is the result of various factors interacting in complex ways to bring forth the
resultant aggressive acts. Largely two perspectives have been theorized for the cause of juvenile
delinquency

8
Parents Should Not Spank Children - 1657 Words (May 16, 2020, 11:40 a.m.) www.problemsolutionessay.com
9
Juvenile Delinquency: Psychological Concepts (May 16, 2020, 11:44 a.m.) www.ukessays.com

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  primary factors, and

 Secondary factors

The primary factors are biological and psychological and the secondary factors are social and
environmental influences.

BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Research findings indicate that delinquency has a moderate genetic heritability as indicated by
higher concordance rates for delinquency seen between identical twins when compared with
non-identical twins. Furthermore, evidence also suggests that strong environmental influences
interact with a genetic predisposition to determine which individual will show criminality.
Adolescence is also an age of various psychologists’ changes that accompany puberty. It is
during this time that the young person attains sexual maturity. Level of hormones in the young
body increases almost 0 times with a sharp increase in levels of testosterone. Initially, it was
presumed that these increased levels of testosterone were responsible for aggression amongst
young men. However, today studies show that there is no direct connection between the
increased levels of testosterone and aggression, instead, it is changing in the brain circuitry that
can help understand the risk-taking behaviour. One explanation that is given and assumes that
adolescents failed to understand the risk associated with certain behaviours so underestimate the
likelihood that harmful outcomes will happen to them. However, brain imaging allows us to
understand that adolescents are well aware of the risk and can accurately appraise risk-taking
behaviour such as drinking and driving and unprotected sex.

This region of the brain which is implicated in impulse control, planning, and decision making is
not fully developed until the early '20s. Thus adolescence is a period where rewards of
risk-taking became more attractive, but, the capacity to control and regulate behaviour is still
developing. The biological perspective thus emphasizes various physical changes that interact
with certain psychosocial changes that occur during adolescents which increases the likelihood
of risk-taking behaviours.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

The psychodynamic perspective brings to focus the conflicts that emerge with the id-ego

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struggles and aggression is seen more of an id impulse that is normally under control but could
leak out in case the young adult has not learned appropriate ways of directing such impulses. The
weakness of the ego is enhanced because of a dysfunctional relationship with significant adults
like parents or caregivers, and a lack of submission in intellectual or social activities. Since there
is no supervision by parents, the superego is weak and gives no guidance to the ego which is
guided by the id impulse and strives towards momentary gratification, thus, aggression in young
people is the weakness of the ego which is accentuated by the weakness of the superego and the
id gets the opportunity for overt expression.

Psychoanalyst Augst Aichorn was the first to explain the mental state of criminality. Young
adults who do not have an opportunity to learn appropriate socialization processes from their
early familial environment either because they were abused, neglected, or exposed to violence
themselves are often unable to control their impulses and seek immediate gratification. They also
have trouble empathizing with others and feel no remorse or guilt while hurting others. He
coined the term latent delinquency to describe the mental state of such young adults.

The psychodynamic perspective takes into account early childhood experiences as being
important contributors to the make-up of a healthy ego. Juvenile delinquents are seen as having
immature egos and thus can be easily led by their peers to gang up into committing crimes.

BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE

According to the behaviourists, all behaviour is a result of conditioning and reinforcement

including violence and aggression. Young adults who engage in violence do so because of their
earlier experiences with violence. These youth either have been directly exposed to some form of
aggression themselves or have observed significant others in their immediate environment
getting attention either positively or negatively or have themselves been given such attention. It
is thus not uncommon to violence amongst youth who belong to neighbourhoods that are volatile
themselves.

Bandura determined that certain types of children learn to perform violent and aggressive actions
by observing and then modelling their behaviour after what they have seen10. He referred to this
as direct learning through the instantaneous matching of the observed behaviour to the modelled

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behaviour.11 Therefore, social learning theory states that violence is a learned behaviour through
observation learning which can sometimes occur even through the simple process of watching
TV or a movie with criminal intent where the lead actor indulges in violent acts and get
reinforced for such behaviour.

PERSONALITY AND VIOLENCE

Personality can be broadly defined as those characteristics of the person that accounts for
consistent patterns of feelings, thinking and behaving. The personality trait or a characteristic
that is most consistently related to antisocial behaviour is low self-control or impulsivity.
Individuals who are less likely to inhibit and or control their behaviour are more likely to engage
in antisocial and criminal activity.

Seen amongst young children and adolescence these traits appear around the age of eight years
or more and are described under the category of conduct disorder. These youngsters show to the
law, the rights of others and show a deficit in social behaviour. They manifest such personality
traits like overt or covert hostility, disobedience, physical and verbal aggression, quarrelsome
behaviour, vengeful attitude and destructiveness. These children are also caught lying, stealing,
and engage in aggressive acts like cruelty to animals, vandalizing property, bullying other
children, and committing other criminal acts and even homicide. Young teenagers could be
involved with sexual promiscuity and drug use and abuse.

There is strong evidence that conduct disorder is genetically linked to a difficult temperament
and such children are often rejected by their parents. This begins a self-perpetuating cycle of
rejection and non-secure attachment. As a result of their difficult temperament, these children
feel rejected and may engage in destructive behaviours, which, then turn into socially
inappropriate traits. A child's personality is affected by lack of love, affection, emotional

10
Juvenile Delinquency Theories (May 16, 2020, 12:00 p.m.) www.22signs.com
11
Juvenile Delinquency Theories: Halo Capital church financing (May 16, 2020, 11:50 a.m.) www.scribd.com

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insecurity and strict discipline, feelings so insecurity, inferiority, rejection and alienation.

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

The age of adolescents involves transitions between childhood and adulthood where significant
biological, psychological, and social changes are occurring, during this time the youth is faced
with numerous conflicts. They have to learn to deal with parental expectations, make new
adjustments with the various social demands, be part of a group; get exposed to high-risk
behaviour, and deal with a host of behavioural and emotional problems (walker 2002). So to
recognize heightened risk-taking behaviour including criminal offending in youth, it is necessary
to examine the juxtaposition of the various psychosocial environmental influences that the
adolescent is faced with that are occurring during this period.

FAMILY INFLUENCE

Family plays a vital role in the life of a young person. It is the social environment in which a
child learns the various rules of life and learning to behave. Social theorists point out the
importance of family as models of vicarious learning and criminal parents might as well model
antisocial behaviour in ways that may increase the likelihood of offending amongst their
children. If the parents, siblings, and relatives of a young individual are engaged in criminal
behaviour there is a greater likelihood that the young person will develop a history of offending,
thus crime is seen to run in the family. Additionally, children from broken homes are also at a
greater risk for engaging in delinquent behaviours than are those from intact families. This
relationship is again a multifaceted and not a simple equation. When parents fight with each
other the youngster gets drawn into this conflict, often feeling uncared for, lacking love and
appreciation and not getting the attention they deserve. Additionally, they are constantly being
exposed to violence and conflict and it is this environment that often pushes these youngsters
into delinquent acts seeking attention elsewhere. There seems to be clear evidence from various
studies that children exposed to violence between parents are a significant risk factor for later
offending. There are four key research findings -:

1. Child maltreatment is the most common type of abuse predicting youth violence to date.

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 2. compounded types of abuse (Example, sexual, emotional, physical ) and increases the
severity of abuse appears to increase the likelihood of later youth violence perpetration

3. Evidence is suggesting that childhood maltreatment may be a predictor of intimate

partner violence perpetration, particularly for females.

4. Findings indicate that less serve forms of physical punishment and harsh parenting can
result in an increased likelihood of later violence and perpetration.

Authoritarian parents who practice punitive approaches to discipline such as corporal

punishment and who tend to be cold and rejecting are more likely to have delinquent children.
Some parents are busy and do not make quality time for their children. They often could
compensate for their behaviour with unwarranted reinforces like expensive gifts and monetary
benefits. Such children seek negative attention by involving themselves with high-risk
behaviours or seek affirmation in the company of peers who could be a bad influence on them.

PEER INFLUENCES

Adolescent seeks to move away from parental influences and seek their company of the peers as
in a bid to understand themselves and form a new and separate identity. This process is a natural
part of adolescent development nut during this process parental involvement decreases and often
it becomes difficult for a parent to monitor their children. Juvenile offending frequently occurs in
the company of others. Co-offending typically occurs in groups of two to four individuals and is
more common for offences like drug use, vandalism, and burglary, and car theft.

Two hypotheses propose an explanation for such peer relationships. The facilitation hypothesis
that suggests that in an attempt to try out new behaviours the youth searches for associations, in
turn, is the casual factor that increases the likelihood of offending. On the other hand, the
selection hypothesis suggests that those youth that displays delinquent behaviour will seek out
like-minded delinquent peers to associate with adolescents who are more criminally inclined tend
to seek out peers with similar characteristics.

Research typically suggests that when all of an individual’s friends are delinquent and when the
delinquent group is highly cohesive, then the effect of having delinquent peers on offending is
greater. As seen earlier, those parents who are actively involved in their children's life and

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monitor their children's whereabouts and friendships are less likely to be members of delinquent
peer groups.

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS

While understanding offences amongst the youth it is impossible to ignore the socioeconomic
status of the youth. This not only reflects the income status but also includes an important
variable of the neighbourhood in which the youth would grow up. Most research postulates that
low socio-economic status is a risk factor for juvenile delinquency. This, however, does not
imply that all children who come from a lower socio-economic stratum are offenders. However,
these children grow up in conditions that have higher chances that the child will be exposed to
multiple factors that could lead them to offending. Being deprived of the basic needs where the
child has to learn to work to survive, such children might seek out ways of offending only in an
attempt to survive. Additionally, such youth might have been exposed to poor parenting, been
abused physically and emotionally, and be exposed to a lot of violence in the family or on the
streets. Furthermore, such children might also show other mental health disorders such as
attention and conduct disorder. Because these youth are left by themselves with no supervision
or guidance they often seek the company of bad peers and the cycle is vicious and before they
know it they have grown into an offending youth.

These neighbourhoods are the hideouts of adult offenders who the youth gets exposed to at a
young age. Moreover, it is seen that more anti-social activities seem to occur in certain
neighbourhoods like slums which are characterized by poverty, physical disorder, and residential
instability.

CHAPTER 4

PREVENTION OF YOUTH CRIME

Efforts to control violence using psychological intervention have been an ongoing effort for over
a century. With juvenile crime, the discussion is, even more, complicating with efforts to
comprehend ways in which the system can combat and prevent crime and eliminate deviance for
future crimes against youth. The main goal of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation rather

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than punishment.12 Crime preventions in youth are intervened on two levels. One that seeks to
address the prevention of crimes amongst youth and the other that seeks to reform youth
offenders. The primary prevention programs that employ psychological principles include
strategies that seek to identify and treat personal problems and disorders before they translate
into criminal behaviour. Organizations involved in such primary prevention efforts include
family therapy centres, mental health associations, school counselling programs, and substance
abuse clinics. Many still argue that the expansion of such psychological services will ultimately
reduce the level of violent crime in society. On the other hand, secondary prevention efforts
focus on the psychological treatment of youth offenders after a crime has been committed and as
part of the corrective facility offered by the criminal justice system. Congress passed the juvenile
delinquency prevention and control Act in 1968. This was later revised in 1972 and renamed the
juvenile delinquency prevention Act.13 The stated purpose of the act is to assist state and local
communities in providing community-based Preventative services to youths in danger of
becoming delinquent, to help train individuals in occupations providing such services, and to
provide technical assistance in the field. The following are some psychological interventions that
have shown to have a positive result while dealing with prevention and reforms with youth
delinquents14.

COUNSELING A DELINQUENT

A young person who has committed an offence may show no signs of remorse and may not
voluntarily seek help. He /She is categorized as a reluctant client and are usually referred by the
system or concerning adults. The delinquent will take no responsibility for his/her action and
show an unwillingness to communicate. The counsellor has to be highly trained. They must have
the option to initially assemble affinity and addition certainty with the youthful reprobate. The
process should involve unconditional acceptance and create a feeling of security and a sense of
belongingness where the young delinquent can get in touch with their feelings of insecurity and
inferiority. This process is slow and time-consuming. The delinquent may openly defy the
counsellor and thus the counsellor has to be a person with experience. The foal of the counselling
process is to build the confidence of this young person, rebuild their self-esteem, and make them

12
The Juvenile Justice System (May 17, 2020, 2:30 p.m.) www.makingwavescanada.org
13
Juvenile Law (May 17, 2020, 2:40 p.m.) www.floreslawoffice.com
14
Richard A Simmons, Juvenile law (May 17, 2020, 2: 43 p.m.) www.simmonslawonline.com

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take responsibility for their actions. Once the root cause of delinquency is established, the
therapist will work with various techniques to change the behaviour of the offender, re-educate,
and rehabilitate him/ her.

MENTAL CATHARSIS

Catharsis is a concept in psychoanalytic theory wherein the emotions associated with traumatic
events come to the surface. This provides an opportunity for the child to express their pent up
emotions.15 The therapist gives various strategies which allow the release of pent up feelings
such as talking about the anger they feel towards their significant adults like parents without
being judgmental or imposing their values, play therapy, finger painting, and psycho-drama are
some important techniques that are known to show results in juvenile delinquents

CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT

Nobody is born a delinquent and even if there is a genetic tendency towards aggression and the
environmental influences play a vital role in the expression of these symptoms. This is also seen
to be effective in bringing about change in delinquent behaviour especially when the home
situation is the cause of their aggression. Alternate housing facilities with an appropriate
environment should be developed where children can receive appropriate skills of parenting are
observed. However, such foster homes should be one that the delinquent is allowed to love
themselves and trust rather than fighting off deceit and abuse. Treating delinquency is complex
and limited and requires the efforts of dedicated and committed professionals and caregivers.
Rather than intervention a society should focus on preventing juvenile delinquency amongst their
youth. Preventive measures should be identified that may be present in the family or other social
environment of the youth and efforts to eliminate these should be prescribed.16

One of the contributing factors to juvenile delinquency is the family environment. Rapid
urbanization has resulted in weakening a healthy family .sometimes with both parents working a
young child is left with no adult supervision. Additional work stress brings about an increase in
levels of anxiety and often parents find release by handling stressors of parenting by either strict
discipline or taking out their frustration on each other. Spouses fighting and child beating are

15
Catharsis (May 17, 2020, 2:45 p.m.) www.goodtherapy.org
16
Prevention And Early Intervention (May 17, 2020, 2:55 p.m.) www.youth.gov

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common reasons for abuse that could lead a child to engage in delinquent acts. A family
atmosphere that is hostile with inadequacies expressed in the parent-child relationships and child
abuse with violence does great injury to the child. Thus, from a preventive point of view, the
greatest hope for discouraging delinquency lies in efforts made to improve the quality and
harmony if the family system . Family counselling services to help families address difficulties
that they may face in dealing with young adolescents are needed. Additionally, the youth should
be able to visit counsellors at schools or other community Centres to seek intervention especially
if they are being abused. The present laws are pro-youth and favour such interventions however
such facilities must be competent. Furthermore, the numbers of young people that need to be
addressed are huge. The attention needed for every child requires efforts or more counsellors and
more social workers.

REMODELING OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

A preventive mechanism that will decrease juvenile delinquency is the remodeling of the
education system in India. Every child in India has the fundamental right to education 17 .
However, the education does not cater to the individual needs of a child and often delinquent
youth gets left out of the system. Either they drop out or show no interest in wanting to go to
school. One of the commonest characteristics observed among delinquent’s children is the
dislike of school and teachers. There requires a need to adapt the educational process to meet the
needs and interests of children and cater to their developmental stage. personality development
of the children are largely also influenced by the schooling, programs and life skill courses that
focus on the personality development of young student should become mandatory in the
educational system and throughout the years of high school. However, this would require
training teachers to handle diverse students and adequate budgets.

Additionally, high school should have programs that create awareness about narcotic substance
use and abuse and other high-risk behaviours. The school should work with social agencies to
target zero tolerance for such behaviours. Such a preventive intervention will bring down

17
Child Rights : A gist (May 17, 2020, 3:23 p.m.) www.smilefoundation.com

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delinquency behaviours that are closely connected with substance abuse and promiscuity. Even
though every school must have a counsellor, whom the child can be referred to, it is also equally
important to train teachers to identify those children that would require specialized attention
before their behaviours turn to delinquent.

Furthermore, introducing special life skill courses to manage and maintain optimum emotional
health and positive well-being can be designed and taught in schools that deal with the conflicts
and frustration that are related to various development states that the youth face such as sexuality
education and anger management or expressing their emotions.

CONCLUSION

The issue of juvenile delinquency is a serious issue in our society today which requires more
attention since it determines the value of the next generation. Thus this proves that the
government and all their agencies and associations who have a role to play in solving this issue
do so and with a lot of diligence. Parents and society at large also have a duty and role to play in
solving menace. Juvenile delinquency should be prevented before it spills over to a level
whereby it will be too late to do something about it. Every individual diligent should be treated
separately since every individual will have different factors which influence their criminal
behaviours. Some new programs should be developed to ensure that the juvenile is rehabilitated
to the highest desired level. New technologies and correction procedures should be invented to
ensure the diagnosis of this issue is done earlier and if any disorder id discovered in a child then
it is corrected and gets proper treatment for it. The children who are abandoned or which are
usually sent in foster care should be looked after properly. Every foster care or foster home
should be regularly checked by the agents of govt. The police should also treat juveniles politely
and in a friendly manner because a saving hand is all a child needs. This could probably help in
reducing the juvenile reported cases.

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