Daily Times

Our Children are our greatest national asset and resource. They should be allowed and provided every opportunity to grow up into robust citizens, physically fit, mentally alert and morally healthy, endowed with skills and motivations needed by society. Equal opportunities for development to all children during the period of growth should be provided for reducing inequality and ensuring social justice. Children are expected to be obedient and respectful with good values.

But it is unfortunate that today, many young people are facing challenges in traditional patterns guiding relationships and transitions between family, school and work. Juvenile delinquency refers to participation in illegal behaviour by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit. It is not uncommon in these days that young people are either used in criminal acts or they themselves commit crimes punishable by law. Juvenile delinquency is expression of unsatisfied desires and urges. For a delinquent, his/her deviant act is a normal response to his/her inner desire.

Juvenile means a non-adult person, and delinquency has been derived from its Latin origin dilinquere, which implies any sort of negligence. Therefore, any anti-social behaviour, according to the law of a particular land, constitutes delinquency, committed by a juvenile or non-adult person.

In Pakistan, we do not have any legal or administrative regulation defining the term juvenile delinquency; the age of a person is the only criterion of juvenile delinquency. According to the Pakistan Penal Code (section 82 and 83), “Nothing is an offence that is done by a child under seven years of age” and “nothing is an offence that is done by a child above seven years of age and under twelve, who has not attained understanding to judge the nature and consequences of his conduct on that occasion.”

In Pakistan, we do not have any legal or administrative regulation defining the term juvenile delinquency; the age of a person is the only criterion of juvenile delinquency

Islamic jurisprudence clearly distinguishes between a juvenile’s offence and an adult’s crime (Khan 1986). It postulates distinction between crime and delinquency in the light of Islamic principles. According to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), three categories of persons are immune from operation of law; (a) A sleeping person until he is awake; (b) A minor until he/she is minor; (c) A lunatic until he is insane.

The sharp increase in crime following the Second World War is often attributed to the rapid industrialisation, modernisation and accompanying changes that marked the period. It has been said that the social problem of one generation is the psychological problem for the next. The increasing problems of juveniles encouraged many researchers to study the socioeconomic and familial disturbances that may lead young persons towards delinquency, and to introduce theories that deal directly with youngsters involved in crime.

Factors such as hereditary, family system, poverty, narcotics, abnormal sexualising, mental abnormalities and peer pressure are considered reasons for juvenile delinquency. Culture hybridism, confusion of behaviour norms and weakening of agencies of social control are related to such situations. When normal values and traditions break down, it is often the adolescents who feel the most stress. It is only when this behaviour pattern is of any aggressive nature and harmful to the public that the concerned child comes within the purview of the law.

Family discord and inconsistent and inappropriate discipline are also associated with delinquency. Communication plays a great role in functioning of the family. For adolescents, two components of parenting have been identified as important: monitoring and positive communication. Children get their behaviour patterns from their family and their friends. What many parents do not realise is that from the time of birth, all children have a natural attraction to their parents. Many parents do not fully grasp their role as a teacher, and they do not realise the influence they exert as parents on their children. When these vital lessons are not taught by family, a child may collapse under the pressures of the outside world, with juvenile delinquency being an almost certain fate. Communication, consistency and monitoring of children have consistently proven to be beneficial in preventing delinquency.

The subject has been widely studied in the developed world, as according to an estimate, 33 percent of the youth of the developed world are afflicted with this problem. The subject is much ignored in the developing countries. The same is the case with Pakistan, in spite of the fact that the number of delinquents is rising with each passing day, and socioeconomic dynamics of our society are rapidly changing due to mass media, globalisation, westernisation of society, and societal and class inequalities.

Today, Pakistani adolescents are more westernised than their parents. Their way of thinking differs from their parents’ paradigms. There is a great deal of conflict, mistrust and rebellion against authority figures such as parents and teachers. Dramatic economic developments, information technology, drugs and media bombardment have perplexed the older generation, hence the widening gap between the two. Incidence of street crime is on the rise and so is terrorism. The stark reality is that of young suicide bombers.

In our socioeconomic scenario, both formal and informal controls are losing their grip on society, particularly stratification of schools based on class differences and peer groups. In addition, delinquency is not just prevalent in the poor areas but it is rising in affluent society where the youth get involved in crime just for the sake of thrill or self-projection. All this is due to lack of social controls in the modern era where family dynamics are rapidly changing.

To be concluded

The writer is associated with the Public Policy Think Tank Institute