Монологи по темам juvenile delinquency, crime and the punishment

Delinquency has always been considered as a social problem over and above the fact that it is a legal problem. It is also a psychological problem. Hence to avoid this social evil one has to tackle the complex problem of delinquency from the social psychological and to familial angles.

Crime committed by children and adolescents under the age of 18 years, is called delinquency. The maximum age limit and also the meaning of delinquency varies from country to country. But it is always below 18 years of age which is the statutory age for delinquency.

In another significant study, it was noticed that the rate of delinquency in case of socially disadvantaged youths appears about equal for whites and non-whites.

In many under-developed and developing countries including many parts of India, criminal tendency of a person is looked upon as the results of evil deeds in the past life of the parents. This is undoubtedly a misconception and prejudice.

Ample evidences are there to hold that a large percentage of the delinquent children come from poor homes. It is found that even 50 per cent of the delinquents come from lower strata of the society with very poor economic background and hand to mouth living standard. Glueck’s (1934) study revealed that only 28.8% of the children came from comfortable homes with good economic status of parents.

People who support the idea that juvenile delinquency should be perceived as a less serious crime, based solely on the age of the offenders, do not see the whole picture. If the nature of the acts committed by minors is serious enough to be tried under adult laws, this is the course of action that should be taken. Even minors are clearly capable of understanding the law and their obligations to comply with it.

4/ Crime and punishment

If we look into history we shall find that laws are conventions between men in a state of freedom. By justice we understand nothing more than the bond which is necessary to keep the interest of individuals united, without which men would return to their original state of barbarity. All punishments which exceed the necessity of preserving this bond are unjust in their nature.

The result of any punishment should be no other than prevention a criminal from doing further injury to society, and prevention others from committing the like offence. Therefore there ought to be chosen such punishments and such modes of inflicting them that make the strongest and most lasting impressions on the minds of others, with the least torment to the body of the criminal.

The torture of a criminal during the course of his trial is a cruelty consecrated by custom in most nations. It is used with an intent either to make him confess in his crime, or to explain some contradiction into which he had been led during his examination, or discover his accomplices, or for some kind of metaphysical and incomprehensible purgation of infamy, or, finally, in order to discover other crimes of which he is not accused of, but of which he may be guilty.

No man can be judged a criminal until he is found guilty; nor can society take from him the public protection until it has been proved that he has violated the conditions on which it was granted. In the eye of the law, every man is innocent until his crime has been proved. Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty than the severity of punishment.

The more cruel the punishments become, the more hardened and insensible people turn to be. All severity is superfluous, and therefore tyrannical.

The death penalty is pernicious to society, it is the example of barbarity. If the passions, or the necessity of war, have taught men to shed blood of their fellow creatures, the laws, which are intended to moderate the ferocity of mankind, should not increase it by examples of barbarity. It is even more horrible that this punishment is usually attended with formal pageantry. Isn't it absurd, that the laws, which detest and punish homicide, should, in order to prevent murder, publicly commit murder themselves?

It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. This should be the fundamental principle of any good legislation.