Emerging Trends in juvenile justice: A socio-Legal prospective

Abstract

The internationalisation of childhood and the formation of children as a distinct social class are the fundamental roots of juvenile justice. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (1989) altered the epistemology of juvenile justice with its Euro-centric image of children as right-holders. In 1992, India ratified the CRC, which defined 'child' universally, regardless of gender, for the first time, challenging the gendered subjectivity of the 'female kid.' Such an epistemological shift, which I refer to as the birth of a new mode of delivering juvenile justice, did not persist long, and one gruesome episode, together with mediatized demonization of male youngsters and growing social discontent about women's safety, transformed the scene. The importance of gender in juvenile justice jurisprudence from the colonial period to the present is examined in this paper. It discusses the Indian state's lack of knowledge of children's rights as it reflects on populist punitiveness at work. The paper explains how the formation of gendered concepts of a particular set of male child offenders has resulted in the punitive turn of the juvenile justice system in India by mapping legislative, juridical, and political components of the journey of the juvenile justice framework in India. It goes on to explain the possible consequences of such punitiveness, as well as why a retributive response by the state is a step backwards in the reform of juvenile delinquents. Overall, it tells the storey of a political-systemic failure to cope with a critical social issue, which should serve as a lesson for countries in South Asia and the rest of the global South in terms of child governance.