Abstract

21st Century has been a testimony to increase in the cases of criminal acts carried out by juvenile. According to the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), children and youth under the age of 18 account for around 36% of individuals detained for all kinds of crime. There is a lot of debate on whether there is a link between adolescent criminality and learning impairments. Speaking of learning disabilities, the curve has shaped in a positive direction. During the last two decades, the world has witnessed a great deal of change for people with learning disabilities, at least in the sense that there is increasing recognition given to them along with the right to participate as normal citizens in community life. With this increased trend of movement towards ‘ordinary life’, there is a need to ensure that people with such disabilities are properly treated in the criminal justice system, both as offenders and as victims. This research project is an initiative to cast sufficient light upon the concept of juvenile delinquency as a major consequence of the different facets of learning disabilities faced by such adolescents along with highlighting the flaws in the criminal justice system and providing recommendations and suggestions to curb the same.

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