KOCHI: The city police have decided to take some major steps considering the recent rise in juvenile crime rate in the state.“The city does not have a history of such alarming juvenile crime cases. Apart from stray incidents of child beggary and shoplifting, nothing major happened in the city in terms of juvenile crime until recently. Last year, only two or three children were booked under the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act,” said Ammose Mamman, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kochi. “A district-level conference was held recently to put a tab on the problem. As a result, we have become more alert regarding juvenile crimes here. Around eight cases have been booked so far this year,” he added.Mamman said juvenile crimes were of two types - one in which the perpetrators are minors, and the other in which they are the victims. The former is when a child comes into conflict with law, whereas the latter includes child labour, human trafficking etc. “In almost 50 percent of the cases booked under the JJ Act this year, children were victims of child labour. Most of the children were arrested for theft and robbery,” said Mamman.Arrested children are put in the Government Observation Home, Kakkanad, after an inquiry by the Child Welfare Board (CWB). Currently, there are five children in the observation home and all of them are charged with either theft or robbery. The children are then given proper counselling by government-appointed counsellors and doctors for a trial period of four to six months. “Children who come under conflict with law are situational culprits, very few are repeated offenders. None of the children here are from stable families,” said K P Shamsudeen, Superintendent of both Government Observation Home and Childcare Home in Kochi. “If proper care and attention are not given now, these little minds might easily slip into a life of crime. We need to nip such thoughts right when they start,” he added.
Comments
0 comment