The involvement of juveniles in gruesome crimes has triggered a new debate in media platforms and society. People are advocating reducing age of criminal responsibility in India. Even the government is considering grading the crimes committed by juveniles over age of 16. But in my opinion,even though it’s necessary in current scenario, it will serve only as a short term deterrent in preventing such crimes. Juveniles and even young adults are at a phase in their life when their decision making capabilities are not developed fully but they have all the strength and energy at their disposal. Add to this, the risk taking attitude, peer pressure and influence of external mediums along with a neglected or troubled childhood and we may get an emotionally scarred individual. Also, we are witnessing an alarming increase in the rate of suicides among teens as well as young professionals. Looking into the factors which may contribute to juvenile delinquency following issues can be taken into consideration.
1. Media: It can be held responsible because it portrays before us, a scenario where violence is a justified mean to achieve objectives. Moreover, they heavily underplay the effects of violence (antagonist dies of a single gunshot wound and protagonist lives happily after killing 50-60 odd men). Moreover the recent debate in news channels might have lead to an impression that if you are a juvenile you can commit any crime and get away with a maximum of 3 years of sentence. Even suicides are televised as sensational piece of news(as in the case of late Jiah Khan).
2. Parent-Child Relationship: As a fast paced life is keeping parents on their toes, they are working day in and day out for providing economic security to their families. But the special bond which provides emotional security is breaking. Maybe the new generation is changing so rapidly that the older one is finding it difficult to keep pace with it. Maybe somewhere, we are mistaking pleasure for happiness and preferring short term goals to long term relationships.
3. Lack of professional counseling and increasing work pressure: Not many institutes provide professional psychologists to its members. Competition is becoming more academic oriented and survival of the fittest is the norm. Even personality development classes in institutions teach us how to be successful in corporate world rather than how to be deal with life and be happy. We are becoming more knowledgeable but less wise. Pressure of performance is building stress while a lot of youngsters are being overwhelmed by the sheer load of expectations and responsibilities and losing themselves in criminal or virtual world (which could be helpful if used responsibly rather than as an escape mechanism).
We seem to be running so hard against time, afraid that we will fall behind, scared to lose. We are forgetting that life is not a sprint but a marathon and even though we may sprint in the first lap but eventually we will need stamina to finish the race.