Juveniles who went to school committed more crimes

Ludhiana: Juveniles who attended schools were more involved in crimes as compared with those who did not, showed the recently-released report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). It also indicated that juveniles who lived with their parents were more involved in criminal offences as compared with those who lived with their guardians.
As per the report, 37 juveniles were arrested by the Ludhiana police commissionerate in 2019. Of them, 32 (86.5%) were those who had attended school and five (13.5 %) had not. Among the literate ones, 22 had studied up to primary level and 10 had education between primary and matric.
The report also points to an increase in the number of crimes executed by the juveniles in the city. In 2017, as many as 27 juveniles were nabbed by Ludhiana commissionerate police. Twenty-one were arrested in 2018 and in 2019, as many as 37 juveniles were involved in crimes. The cases in 2019 increased by 76% as compared with 2018.
Of these 37 juveniles, 26 lived with their parents and 11 with their guardians. No homeless adolescent was arrested in any crime.
Juveniles were found involved in several offences, like murder, rape, assault, sodomy, thefts and burglaries.
The maximum (11) were arrested for thefts, five in cases of causing grievous hurt, three for rape, two for unnatural offence, one for assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty, one for murder, among others.
The report also throws light on disposal of cases of juveniles apprehended and sent to court in the IPC and Special and Local Laws (SLL) cases. The number of juveniles whose cases were pending for disposal at the beginning of 2019 was 145. Besides, 37 cases were reported in 2019. This makes a total of 182 cases. Among these cases, 42 juveniles were awarded imprisonment, 29 were acquitted or discharged later in the year. Thus, 0.7% were held guilty.
Deputy commissioner of police (detective) SPS Dhindsa said, “In majority of the cases, it has been observed that minors indulged in crimes due to their social and economic condition. They have to drop out of school due to the poor financial condition of their families and then indulge in crimes, like snatching and thefts. At times, they come in contact with youngsters who are into crimes to make easy money. They are vulnerable at this age.”