The recent incident, in which a minor girl had bled to death after sexual intercourse with her boyfriend who just matriculated, will always stay in subconscious mind of people of Ranchi. The suicide case of 16-year-old girl setting herself afire because of continuous harassment by her neighbour is another shocking case of juvenile crimes.
The number of juvenile crimes being committed in Jharkhand has shot up to abnormal figures in the recent times. Over 100 juvenile crime cases of theft, robbery, burglary, dacoity and total of approximately 200 criminal cases under Indian Penal Code were reported in the State in the year of 2011 according to National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report. The cases of theft, robbery, burglary and dacoity are most common crimes committed by youngsters.
“The problem of Juvenile delinquency is a grave issue. Parenting style, peer group association, poor socio-economic status, poor academics, peer rejection and hyperactivity are the factors that lead juvenile into crime,” said Sampat Meena, Inspector General, Crime Investigation Department.
“Theft case is the highly registered crime against the youth. Reason behind this are no monetary support from parents, monetary crisis for drug abuse and many other. A desire to possess materialistic commodities among teenagers also leads to crimes like theft and, sometimes, even murder,” said SP (City) Manoj Ratan Chauthe.
“Adolescents involved in criminal cases mostly belong to income group of less than 25,000 per annum and least cases of juvenile crimes are committed by young people who belong to the income group of 3,00,000 per annum” he further added.Most of the time the nature of criminal cases are not very serious, though cases of murder, rape, kidnapping, abduction, riot, substance abuse and arms act have also been registered under juvenile crime record in the state.
The age group that is most vulnerable to juvenile crime is between 16-18 years that constitute 63.9 per cent of all juvenile crime cases followed by 12-16 years age group that constitute 32.5 percent and 7-12 years age group put in least which is 3.6 per cent according to state CRB report.
Juvenile crimes are disproportionately committed by male adolescent but there are few number of cases where female involvement is there, says the NCRB report.
“Family factors play vital role in juvenile crime that includes lack of parental supervision of child’s friend circle & disciplinary action, harsh punishment given to child push them in aggression and violence, criminal parents and parental abuse” said Chauthe.“The rise in juvenile crime is due to the early attainment of puberty now at the age of 10 which was earlier 16-18 years” said KS Sengar, a Pyschologist of Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry & Allied Sciences RINPAS.
The IG, CID said “Children awareness programme and sex education can control this category of crime. Awareness at home and school levels are really important. Education can curb the critical juvenile crime. “