Growing Cases Of Crimes Among The Youth : Why Has Young Blood Become So Violent?

The headlines of one of the leading newspapers often goes like, Youth arrested for abducting boy in Mumbai, A professor beaten to death by his own students. Going through such headlines has become a routine affair for us. The country is plagued by many catastrophic, socio-economic issues like poverty, terrorism, illiteracy and corruption. The involvement of the youth in overcoming these problems is of great importance. The youth, in a rising nation like ours, plays a strong role in bringing reforms to restructure the nation. They protest and demand what is best for the nation. A case in point is the protest campaign organised mainly by the younger sections of the society to dissent against the acquittal of the convicts in the Jessica Lal murder case. The youth came out in full force and protested against the law that had favoured the rich and the famous. This ultimately led the high court to punish the guilty. However, lately, in order to earn quick bucks and the need to fulfil their dreams and desires at the earliest, young people have resorted to unlawful means to achieve them. Is the future of the nation becoming its own destructor? According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 44 per cent of the arrested criminals belong to the age group of 10 to 30 years, which is the youth (As per the 2011 statistics). There is a section of the youth who have been achieving their goals through unlawful means. Crimes ranging from thefts to kidnapping, murders, rape and sex scandals involve such people. The crime rate has been drastically increasing. Why has the youth of this nation become so pugnacious? Is it due to under-employment or the lack of law enforcement in the country?

On one hand, we are fighting to reduce the minimum age of consumption of alcohol while on the other, we are consuming it, driving recklessly and killing people. We are raising our voices on womens safety and we are the one raping them. Youngsters belonging to well-to-do families have also been caught in cases of hacking bank accounts. Recently, in Delhi, five young men were convicted for thrashing an Air force officer for overtaking the latters car. This highlights that they do not have patience, there is a lot of anger in them and the only problem is that they are directing this anger in the wrong direction. According to leading psychiatrists, the lack of adequate opportunities frustrates young people to an extent where they use any method possible to attain success. Many also believe that youngsters who take the path of crime are the troubled ones. This could be true in some of the cases but people in their 20s, committing a murder over who should get a prantha first is something beyond imagination, as seen in an incident that occurred at midnight in a posh area of South Delhi. Such cases are endless. Many cases like sexual assaults and minor rapes go unreported and the youngsters feel free to commit the same again. Even the judicial system shows leniency towards the accused and no stern action is taken. It is time for the country to revamp its judicial system and processes. Most of the accused are not afraid of being caught after committing the crime. The criminals know that their case will simply pile up with the rest of the cases and by the time the punishment is announced, they might not even exist. Further, the government should take appropriate measures to revive the economy so that employment opportunities are created, not just in metros but in rural areas as well. And last but not the least, the youth should realise their importance as they act as a role model for the future generations. Todays youngsters are the future of the nation and they ought to act like one.
Rage of angels

There has been a disturbing increase in criminal incidents involving young people in India in the past few years. The trend is not confined to the poorer quarters of our cities and towns but even afflicts well-to-do sections of society. According to the latest figures from the National Crime Records Bureau, youth in the age group of 18-30 were responsible for 41 per cent of the total heinous crimes - murder, rape, burglary, dacoity and kidnapping - in 2002, up from 35 per cent in the previous year. Violent behaviour can have several triggers. Parental conflict, broken families, child abuse, poor parental supervision and delinquent peers, coupled with the carefree attitude of youth in schools and colleges, are often the precursors to youth involvement in crime. Social anthropologist Ashis Nandy strikes a note of caution. "Youth crime is an inevitable part of urban growth," he says. "The giant uprooting in the name of development has led to a breakdown of community ties and as a consequence results in spiralling crime." The disconnect between aspiration and opportunity causes social disruptions that ultimately lead to youth turning to crime. Sociologists believe that the break up of community ties in rural Uttar Pradesh and Punjab is responsible for the economic and social stress amongst youth. Due to the massive migration from these areas, there are few able-bodied men left in the villages who can be role models for the youth. In the absence of an iconic figure, migrant youth who move to cities are sucked into crime easily. TV too has shaped the attitudes of youth. A recent UNESCO study reveals boys' fascination for aggressive icons. For instance, Arnold Schwarzenegger was known by 88 per cent of the boys living in high-crime environments in India, Brazil and Japan. "There is a desensitisation to violence. Some youths see it as a solution to day-today problems," argues Dr Rajesh Parikh, psychiatrist at Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital. Influenced by these violent images, many young people feel they can get away with anything. "This mistaken notion that crime is low risk and high gain is their motto," adds Parikh. Another theory puts the blame on biology. It says Generation Next is growing up faster physically. Girls and boys now attain puberty at a younger age than previous generations did. But emotional development has not kept pace with physical maturity. The hormonal disturbance often makes young people turn violent. Akila Sivadas, director of the NGO Centre for Advocacy and Research, describes the problem as a "crisis in gate-keeping". "Parents have to stop being gate-keepers and be facilitators. High expectations of ambitious parents can lead to volatile behaviour." For India - which has about 550 million young people - it is a ticking time bomb it can't afford to ignore. If the factors leading to youth crime are not curbed, the country could slip into anarchy.

Crime trends among the youth Before assessing different patterns of crime committed by the youth, a clarification is warranted. If we take the different age groups of persons arrested in three years (1996 to 1998), we find that on an average 2.6 per cent were below 18 years, 51.6 per cent belonged to 18-30 years age group, 38.4 per cent belonged to 30-50 years age group and 7.4 per cent were above 50 years of age (Crime in India, 1998: 266). Thus about half of the offenders were young (18-30 years). The data on age structure of offenders as given in Crime in India are incongruent to youth offenders, i.e., offenders in 16-25 years age group. Therefore, we interpolated the percentage of offenders in the age groups of 16-21 years, 21-25 years, and 25-50 years. The calculated figures are given in Tables 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3. The above figures point out the following characteristics of crime by youth (i.e., between 16-25 years age group): 1. Crime by youth in India is serious inasmuch as the youth commit about 40 per cent (41.1% in 1998) of the total crime (under the IPC and LSL together). This comes to about 6,962 crimes a day or about 290 crimes per hour. 2. The ratio of crimes by the youth under the Indian Penal Code to crimes under the Local and Special Laws is 1: 2.8, establishing the fact that the youth crime is not so serious in its nature. 3. The ratio of felonies (murder, rape, kidnapping, burglary, dacoity) to misdemeanours is 1: 2 3. 4. The volume of crimes against persons is about three times the crimes committed against property (1: 3.09). 5. The volume of crimes by 'adults' (in 25-50 years age group) is about 20 per cent more than those committed by the 'youth' (in 16-25 years age group).

Crime and punishment for Indias youth

NEW DELHI, India With his teenager's wispy mustache and a mullet, 19 year-old Muhammed may seem guilty of failing to keep up with current style, but youd never guess hes a convicted murder. Three of us were out of our minds on smack, he said of his crime of two years ago. We saw a guy walking down the road who looked like he had a little cash, so we tried to snatch his mobile and wallet. He fought back, so we stabbed him. We thought he'd be able to identify us to the police if we left him alive. Poor, addicted to drugs, and living on the street, Muhammad (not his real name) exemplified a disturbing dark side of India's so-called demographic dividend an increasingly youthful

population economists predict will help this country surpass China as the world's manufacturing hub by 2020. Although the economic boom is making more people rich, rising inequality, poor education and persistent unemployment have helped prompt a spike in juvenile crime. But Muhammed is lucky. Since he was 17 at the time of his crime, the maximum sentence he faced was a three-year stint in a so-called observation home. He served his time in a progressive pilot program that focuses on de-addiction and rehabilitation. Less than two years later, hes free and eager to put his life back together thanks to his rare chance from India's generally troubled juvenile justice system. But such breaks may become even rarer, thanks to a furious campaign now underway to allow Indian courts to try young offenders as adults. That worries childrens rights activists, who believe the global attention to last months vicious gang-rape of a 23-year-old Delhi physical therapy student in which a 17-year-old boy is alleged to have taken part is prompting knee-jerk reactions that threaten to hasten the change. Juvenile crime rose 40 percent between 2001 and 2010, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The spike in violence and crimes against women by young offenders has been even more dramatic. Rapes by juveniles have more than doubled in the same period, murder is up by a third and kidnappings of women and girls has grown nearly five times. Those figures have prompted a drive to give trial judges the discretion to try juveniles as adults, or to define youths over 16 years old as adults when it comes to serious crimes. In what may prove to be a landmark case, the Supreme Court on Friday admitted a pleaarguing that the mental age rather than physical age of the juvenile suspect in the gang rape case should be used to determine whether or not to try him as an adult. That contravenes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which sets the age at 18. India's women and child development minister has spoken out against lowering the bar. But newspapers, television channels and tough-talking politicians continue to demand a crackdown on juvenile offenders even as experts insist the juvenile system is already broken and brutal. It's already very custodial, very hostile, very abusive, very violent, because of state apathy, said Anant Asthana, a child rights lawyer who works with the New Delhi-based Human Rights Law Network. [Juvenile offenders routinely suffer] physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse within the system itself. Activists say officials routinely violate laws aimed at protecting children. Instead of obtaining written orders to send underage offenders to observation homes, overworked police sometimes pretend not to know children's age in order to put them in jail. The law guarantees juveniles speedy trials, but they often spend maximum three-year sentences in observation homes, denied bail until theyre essentially compelled to plead guilty in order to be released.

Sociologists argue that reducing the threshold age to 16 wouldnt lower juvenile crime rates. They say it would deny thousands of young offenders a chance at rehabilitation instead and exacerbate age-old prejudices and new fears resulting from rapid social change by targeting poor youths. Were a society based on hierarchies, says sociologist Khushboo Jain, who spent three years doing field work with street children. These young people [on the streets] are dynamic. They've taken control of their lives. But we don't want people to come up. And if they do, we try to subjugate them in any way possible. Bharti Ali of the Haq Center for Child Rights blames the rise in juvenile crime rates on government policies he says are prompting cycles of poverty. Some 80 percent of the family budget is spent on health care, he says. The government education system has failed, so children run away from the schools. There's a lot of domestic violence, so children leave home or they kill their fathers. He also points to the stark and growing contrast between rich and poor. You have luxury malls on one side, and on the other side you have a slum, he says. More from GlobalPost: Delhi gang-rape trial sent to fast-track court More than half of the children in trouble with the law come from families with households income of less than $500 a year, according to NCRB data. Critics say that trend would surely deepen if trial judges were given discretion to treat some juvenile offenders as adults. Experts point to the United States as a warning case. Nine out of 10 juveniles who run afoul of the law worldwide never commit another crime, according to an International Save the Children Alliance report. However, in America where more juveniles are tried as adults than in any other country research by the Justice Department shows stricter punishment fails to deter youth crime in general or reduce the likelihood that juveniles sentenced as adults will commit crimes in the future. Thats something 19-year-old Muhammad doesnt question. If I'd been sent to jail, he says, I'd have come out worse than when I went in.

Youngsters taking to crime to get rich overnight

KANPUR: When the news of young and educated lot committing a heinous crime makes headlines, it only brings home the fact that they are in the grip of `getting rich overnight' syndrome. The number and nature of such crimes in recent years have crossed the imagination. A police official said: "We are surprised to find these educated youngsters committing such a heinous crime which can be conceived only by hardest criminals. There has been steady flow of such youngsters into the world of crime. One cannot imagine their involvement in crimes like loot, auto-theft, murder, kidnapping and even cyber fraud." According to the experts, the crime rate among youngsters has gone up by as much as 50-60 per cent, with more serious `crimes' on the increase. Last few years witnessed several such crimes committed by youngsters, some from reputed colleges and institutions, others from well-to-do families.

On Sunday, an MBA degree holder Vijay Rajput alias Pinku, son of Nand Lal, a retired irrigation employee was arrested with five others for looting a truck on KanpurFarrukhabad highway. Similarly, a group of youth, involved in hacking the password of credit and debit cards, were arrested by the SOG from the Keshav Nagar. All of them have studied in Delhi University and some of reputed associated colleges. But experts argue that there is more to it than prima-facie culpability. Psychiatrist at GSVM Medical College Vipul Shah said: "Lack of adequate opportunities frustrate them to an extent where they use any method to get success. People must understand that these are troubled youth and must be helped." The reasons for increase in crime committed by adolescent or young adults are lack of care and love from parents, falling in bad company and erosion of values in the society and in educational institutions. According to sociologists, the crime is the result of `get rich at any cost' mentality which has gripped the youngster. DIG Rajesh Rai said: "Youngsters come to the city to strike it rich, want quick money, guns and girls. For this to be tackled at the roots, there must be a joint initiative by the law, the youth and their families." Criminal lawyer SC Srivastava says: "Since they are young, the judicial system takes a slacker approach to them and that makes them feel invincible. I see a lot of youth getting into crime because they are bored or lonely. The gratification is immediate but disastrous. The law must take a tougher disciplinarian stance as these are not hardened criminals but may become so if not checked at the right time."
Introduction In the past few years, shockingly violent acts perpetrated by young people have figured prominently in newspaper headlines. On the morning of May 9, 1995, a homeless man in New York City was burned alive by five youths, ranging in age from twelve to nineteen. Shortly thereafter, a three-year-old in Los Angeles was accidentally killed by gunfire when the car she was riding in with her older brother was ambushed by a gang of juveniles. The same year, a five-year-old in Chicago was thrown out of a fourteen-story building after the youngster refused to steal candy for his twelve-year-old murderers. Such stories have added to the general publics growing fear of a rising tide of violence among todays youth. Many experts argue that statistics on teen violence lend credence to this fear. According to James Alan Fox, a researcher in demographic criminology, while the rate of murders committed by adults over age twenty-four fell 10 percent from 1990 to 1993, the rate among young adults (ages eighteen to twenty-four) rose 14 percent and the rate for teenagers jumped 26 percent. Furthermore, Fox maintains that the problem of youth violence will continue to increase. Complacency and myopia in preparing for the coming crisis of youth crime will almost certainly guarantee a future blood bath, he warns. Alarming statistics and heinous crimes involving young offenders have created public outcry, which in turn has driven a trend toward tougher punishment for juvenile offenders. In January 1997, President

Bill Clinton addressed the public regarding the need for keeping our children safe and attacking the scourge of juvenile crime and gangs. The presidents call for every police officer, prosecutor and citizen in America [to work] together to keep our young people safe and young criminals off the streets reflected the vigorous push in almost all fifty states to control juvenile crime through laws never before enforced on underaged offenders. These new laws have allowed juveniles as young as fourteen to be tried in adult courts, opened juvenile hearings to the public, and given authorities access to the records of young criminals. Many consider these tough new laws to be the last recourse in stemming the tide of vicious young predators. Others, however, argue that this emphasis on punishment over prevention is misguided and clearly not in the best interest of young people. Prevention advocates insist that the most effective means to combat youth violence is early intervention for at-risk children and teens. They propose a number of strategies, including government-funded activities after school hours and outreach to gang members. Punishment, these critics assert, is an ineffective deterrent for most young people. They cite recent research that shows that juveniles who serve time in adult prisons are just as likely to return to crime as those detained in juvenile facilities. Some commentators maintain that society favors harsh punishment out of laziness. By locking these youths away, they argue, society can avoid the hard work necessary to prevent juvenile violence or to rehabilitate young offenders. Henry Giroux, author of Fugitive Cultures: Race, Violence, and Youth, contends that the trend toward harsher punishment stems from degrading [media] depictions of youth as criminal, sexually decadent, drug crazed, and illiterate. As a result, says Giroux, young people have been scapegoated and unfairly characterized as a growing threat to the public order. In reality, many critics assert, the problem of youth violence is far less prevalent and severe than the general public has been led to believe. The debate over the most effective response to youth violence is far from resolved. Moreover, it is only one of several controversies that figure prominently in the discussion over youth violence. The following chapters of Youth Violence: Current Controversies examine different aspects of this ongoing debate, including the seriousness of the phenomenon, root causes of violent behavior, methods of prevention, types of intervention programs, and modes of punishment.