Juvenile Delinquency – Definition, Causes and Prevention

• The Children Act, 1960 defines a delinquent as:
  • ‘A child who has committed an offence’
• But juvenile delinquency includes not only juvenile crime, but all aspects of deviations from normal behaviour like habitual disobedience, interaction with immoral people and antisocial activities
• Statistics from the United States reveal that about 2% of children between 7 and 17 years of age attend juvenile courts
• Similar statistics are not available in India

Causes for juvenile delinquency:

• Biological causes:
  • Heredity
  • Hormonal imbalance
  • XYY genotype
• Social causes:
  • Broken homes
  • Death of parents
  • Separation of parents
• Other causes
  • Industrialization
  • Urbanization
  • Absence of recreation facilities

Prevention:

• Improving family values
• Schooling
• Social welfare schemes