JUVENILE JUSTICE IN KARNATAKA: EMPIRICAL INSIGHTS INTO OFFENCES, REHABILITATION, AND DISTRICT-LEVEL IMPLEMENTATION

  • Unique Paper ID: 188284
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 7
  • PageNo: 1038-1048
  • Abstract:
  • This study is an empirical investigation into the juvenile justice administration in five districts: Davangere, Shivamogga, Dharwad-Haveri, Chitradurga, and Ballari. The data was collected from 113 juveniles through structured interviews and institutional observations. Secondary data was collected in order to understand the typology of offense, bail and custody outcomes, dispositional directions, and the socioeconomic backgrounds. The study revealed that the male adolescents aged between 16 and 18 were predominantly involved in the offences. There was a significant correlation between educational disengagement, non-support of parents, and economical vulnerability with that of offenses. The study also revealed that there was disparity in the rehabilitative outcomes at the district level in contrast to the directives of the application of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act 2015), though bail was granted in almost half the cases. The observations revealed the importance of adequate infrastructure, staffing and inter-agency coordination in order to effectively implement the directives. The study also revealed that the districts with centralized juvenile justice boards and active district child protection units had better adherence to the statutory requirements for rehabilitative practices. However, districts with shared jurisdictions and proximity to intimidating law enforcement settings have challenges. The study advocates bridge schooling for the drop-o1ut children, gender-sensitive custodial infrastructure, structured diversion programs, and family-focused integration strategies. The study also advocates the essentiality of the standardized protocols, capacity building and real-time data systems in order to enforce the juvenile justice delivery. With the contextual insights and the statistical analysis, this paper contributes the imminent steps to be initiated by the policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders of child protection, whereby an effective mechanism is built to ensure an equitable, rehabilitative and rights-based juvenile system.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2025 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{188284,
        author = {Basavana Gowda B P},
        title = {JUVENILE JUSTICE IN KARNATAKA: EMPIRICAL INSIGHTS INTO OFFENCES, REHABILITATION, AND DISTRICT-LEVEL IMPLEMENTATION},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {7},
        pages = {1038-1048},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=188284},
        abstract = {This study is an empirical investigation into the juvenile justice administration in five districts: Davangere, Shivamogga, Dharwad-Haveri, Chitradurga, and Ballari. The data was collected from 113 juveniles through structured interviews and institutional observations. Secondary data was collected in order to understand the typology of offense, bail and custody outcomes, dispositional directions, and the socioeconomic backgrounds. The study revealed that the male adolescents aged between 16 and 18 were predominantly involved in the offences. There was a significant correlation between educational disengagement, non-support of parents, and economical vulnerability with that of offenses. The study also revealed that there was disparity in the rehabilitative outcomes at the district level in contrast to the directives of the application of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act 2015), though bail was granted in almost half the cases. The observations revealed the importance of adequate infrastructure, staffing and inter-agency coordination in order to effectively implement the directives. The study also revealed that the districts with centralized juvenile justice boards and active district child protection units had better adherence to the statutory requirements for rehabilitative practices. However, districts with shared jurisdictions and proximity to intimidating law enforcement settings have challenges. The study advocates bridge schooling for the drop-o1ut children, gender-sensitive	custodial infrastructure, structured diversion programs, and family-focused integration strategies. The study also advocates the essentiality of the standardized protocols, capacity building and real-time data systems in order to enforce the juvenile justice delivery. With the contextual insights and the statistical analysis, this paper contributes the imminent steps to be initiated by the policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders of child protection, whereby an effective mechanism is built to ensure an equitable, rehabilitative and rights-based juvenile system.},
        keywords = {Juvenile Justice, Karnataka, Petty Offences, Rehabilitation, District-Level Analysis},
        month = {December},
        }

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