Understanding Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Offence

Abstract

Media routinely reports about offences being committed by children. There is news of children charged with stealing money, snatching, house breaking, riding on motorcycles without a license, causing accidents, getting into fights, committing sexual abuse or even murder. Juvenile offence or crime, especially since it involves children, is a challenging phenomenon. Each incident of juvenile offence, irrespective of whether it is trivial or serious creates its own impact. This impact is determined by nature and extent of harm, age(s) of those involved, profile of the victim, reaction of the general public, and the shock and shame of the family. The juvenile “case” is a complex combination of the young age of the child, the act or inappropriate offending behaviour, reaction of family and neighbourhood, the legal process of inquiry and the final outcome that has to ensure that justice has been done at all ends.