Juvenile Delinquency: Understanding the Constitutional and Criminal Jurisprudence in Light of the Changes Incorporated in the Recent Amendments

Our society has undergone vast changes in terms of its principles, perspectives and its moral and ethical standards. What was regarded as immoral ten years ago is no more considered the same. The aspirations for a good life and better opportunities have paved a way for developments and these aspirations have led us further to a fast-moving life. Such changes in the lifestyle have affected children, especially juveniles, the most. They are now more vulnerable to this evolving competition and stress with the expectations of attaining better performance in each field that in turn becomes a root cause for their deviant behavior. In recent years, the juveniles due to their zero-tolerance attitude have perpetrated some of the highest proportions of crimes. Juvenile Delinquency has caused some of the serious offences and is a disaster to the social order of any country. Indian societies have also seen inclination towards similar trends of increasing rate of violent crimes committed by the juveniles, which indeed needs a serious solution. To address the problems faced by our society, the lawmakers have, repeatedly, made changes to the laws/enactments pertaining to juvenile delinquents in India. The provisions covering the crimes relating to juvenile delinquents after undergoing various amendments have been incorporated in what is today The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, wherein specific provisions have been included which now allow for a child to be tried as an adult. This paper attempts to address the root causes of juvenile delinquency amongst millennials, the causalities of which include parental neglect, society’s apathy towards children and the evolving changes in the society and the impact of electronics and social media