India is a country of diversified religions and cultures. Despite its continuous growth, it could be seen that the opinions and views of the people have not undergone a significant change. Since time immemorial, a boy child has been regarded to be an important part of the family. The birth of a child is considered to be the most joyous moment for a family especially when it’s the baby boy. But when the child commits such a heinous crime, is it still right to consider him as a child below eighteen years of age, or to consider him at par with the adults? According to Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), “a child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless, under the law applicable to the child, …show more content…
This Act was constituted in terms of the Conventions on the Rights of a Child and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the administration of Juvenile Justice 1985 (Beijing Rules). The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 outlines two target groups. One group is the “Child in need of care and protection” and the other part deals with the “juveniles in conflict with law”. Child in need of care and protection basically implies to provide protection, rehabilitation, care, treatment, and a safe environment to the children. It helps to restore the family to the child or family related environment to the child. For this purpose, Child Welfare Committees have been established to look after the welfare of the children. It consists of a chairperson and four other members out of which one should be a woman and one should be an expert legal adviser in the field of children related issues. The motive of this committee is to uphold the rights of the children as well as to provide them with the shelter homes if the child does not have any family support. Now the second part explains about “juveniles in conflict with law.” It calls for the establishment of Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB). JJB’s enquires into the nature of the crime committed …show more content…
It is really unbelievable that a crime committed by a child of seventeen and a half years is considered to fall under the JJ Act. This means that a child after the completion of six months would attain the knowledge of an adult. It means a child of seventeen and a half years of age does not have the knowledge of the crime that he is committing and will attain all the knowledge after six months. In Delhi Rape case, the person who committed the crime was seventeen and a half years old according to the Court and was thereby tried under JJ Act, 2000; and as per this act, he could not be punished beyond the period of three years. This incident led to an uproar among the people and various activists and many demanded lowering of the age. Some of the legal experts are of the view that lowering of the age is not a solution to the problem. They believe that imposing harsher punishments it is more likely to increase the crimes rather than improving the behavior of the convict. They believe that it is necessary that rehabilitation homes should be provided to them, they should be provided counselling, shelter homes and so on. A child activist with a prominent child rights NGO, said that the government must take a look at the existing law framework. “The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012 refused to lower the age of consent
The article goes on to say that over 3,000 people are in prison for a crime they committed as a minor. They say it is done because they are not allowed to give minors the death penalty any longer. They say that for a minor life in prison is the equivalent to the death penalty. It is then brought about that some of these children are under the of 13. The author of the goes on to say that the courts realize that the children doing these crimes are not fully mature and understanding of their crime.
If You Can’t Do The Time Don’t Do The Crime Nathaniel Abraham is 11 years old and got the world questioning. Nathaniel had acted with murder. The action was displayed in Michigan of 1997. By then, a law in Michigan was created explaining, “a child of any age may be tried as an adult for severe crimes.” This law shows the fair, just process of criminal action towards all, not just the older.
Today, in society the double standards of juvenile justice system is when the “double bind’ that are created to deny girls and women the opportunity to gain power. Even though the juvenile justice system is suppose to be set up where it promotes racial equality, it does not for women. It is set up where gender is set with certain roles and behavior for men/boys and women/girls. In society, gender forms the roles of what girls and boys can and can’t do. It also sets up how certain crimes are seen depending on gender.
The JJDP Act was created to protect juveniles, however, each state has the right to establish the age limit that they considered an adult. Essentially, each state can have their own legal defined age limit for when an individual is no longer considered a juvenile. Most states in the U.S has seventeen as the age when a person is considered an adult under the law. However, Georgia, Texas and few other states have the juvenile cut off age at sixteen and in past times, other states had it as low as fifteen (Tiegen, 2017). Inherently, this means that a young man or woman can’t be taken from family or juvenile court to adult court and taken through the same due process as an adult at the tender age of fifteen.
The decision to try a juvenile as an adult varies drastically across the globe as each country or state has its own set of laws and principles regarding the approach taken to juveniles in the court system that differ from those of other countries (Juvenile Vs Adult). In countries like India and France, there are sometimes entirely separate courts (France’s being called Juvenile Assize) and certain amendments that allow for those aged 16-18 who have committed “heinous” offenses to be tried as adults (Singhl). Places such as Iran and the Middle East try everyone as though they are the same, so minors can receive equal trials and sentences as adults (Mostafaei). Considering there is a range of policy and court differences, and for the purposes
Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.
Bryan Stevenson was born in the poor rural community of Milton Delaware in 1959. Stevenson grew up attending school in a segregated system where he first began noticing racial inequalities. His father had been murdered in a Philadelphia housing project when Stevenson was just a teenager, which he then began to question the racial and economic inequalities throughout his community. These injustices Stevenson had experience drove him into writing the profound book ‘Just Mercy’. Stevenson’s purpose for writing this book was to spread realization on the bias’ within the criminal justice system.
The YCJA, Youth Criminal Justice Act is a federal law was proposed in 2002 and came into effect on April 1 in 2003. The main purpose of this act is to separate youth offenders aging from 12 to 17 from the adults and immaculately protect the right of youth offenders to the maximum and provide rehabilitation and reintegration for them, because the rights of youth offender outweigh the safety of the public. In addition, a particularly successful policy is the rehabilitation and reintegration of youth offenders, this policy is clearly illustrated by the Medicine Hat case. An essential policy of the YCJA is the rehabilitation and the reintegration of youth offenders, this policy provides assistance for youth offenders to realize the crucial mistake they’ve made in the
There is also the Children Act of 1989. This act was brought in to ensure the welfare needs of children were being met and specific responsibilities and duties were given to local authorities. Local authorities were charged with identifying those children who are in need and helping to safeguard them as well as being given the
There are many children in the world who are being put behind bars and detained for alleged wrongdoing without protections they are entitled to. Throughout the world, children are charged and sentenced for actions that should not be considered as adult crimes. Here in the United States, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is age 12. Law enforcement officials and those in the juvenile justice system nationwide tend to mistreat underage individuals by trying cases while working through the lens of an adult. Unfair punishments are still handed down domestically, which is in violation of Supreme Court law.
This paper discusses the theories in radical criminology which contributes core understanding of the youth crime. Furthermore, the nature and extent of youth crime as well as the impact it had on the response of the criminal justice system is critically evaluated. Crime and Criminal Justice System According to McAra and McVie (2010) rupturing of any law and regulation is recognised as crime which may be minor as well as severe. It is said that the administration or establishments generally make laws and commandments that the people of the state
Prior to 1899 in the United States, children who committed a criminal offense were tried and punished as adults. Children were being institutionalized with adult criminals where they were picking up negative influences preparing them for a life of crime. Progressive and social change demanded that children be protected and educated instead and therefore a separate court system for juveniles was subsequently established to address this problem. It has since being argued that juvenile courts have abandoned their role to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents and should be abolished.
Assignment page Video Where many children all over the world merrily and freely live under the protection of the law, for others, this is a distant reality, they live in a world where they’re battling poverty, stripped of their childhood and basic human rights are expunged, they’re the innocent victims of conflict, and war is made to seem their one and only duty, not to mention that these are children no more than 10 years of age. They are put into a situation where it’s to kill or be killed. The United Nations defines a child soldier as, “Any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity.” Since the past 15 years, child soldiers are being used in almost every region of the world. Unlike most children, who go to school, they’re abducted from their families and forced into becoming a child soldier, where living conditions are beyond imaginable.
Treatment rather than Punishment Thesis Statement: Children, as innocents and infantile, are unconsciously doing unwanted acts that may violate our laws, therefore insufficient guidance from family, environmental factors syndicates, poverty and problem on education, which are the main rationales for their involvement on crimes should be given corresponding solution by the government. INTRODUCTION Juvenile delinquency means that a youth specifically those who are below 18 years old commits an act that is against the law. It can also be used as legal term for the criminal behavior carried out by minors. According to UNICEF, an average of 10, 500 minors are being arrested and detained every year – about 28 children every day, or more
If we look at the different criminal justice systems around the world, most countries have laws or regulations stating the “age of criminal responsibility” (Maher. G). However, there has been no clear international standard identified regarding the age at which criminal responsibility could be reasonably charged for a juvenile offender. The Convention on the Rights of Children (CRC) appeals parties to establish ‘a minimum age below which children shall be