Children in Conflict with Law: Reforming Juvenile Justice Legislation

Abstract

Juvenile justice systems face the difficult task of responding to serious offending while preserving the developmental rights, dignity, rehabilitation prospects, and procedural protections of children. Recent reforms in India have strengthened institutional accountability, yet important concerns remain regarding preliminary assessment, individualized rehabilitation, consistency of Juvenile Justice Board decisions, and the handling of sensitive child-level information. This study identifies a research gap at the intersection of juvenile justice legislation, developmental assessment, and responsible data-driven decision support. It proposes that carefully governed computational tools could assist—not replace—Juvenile Justice Boards in identifying rehabilitation needs, case-processing delays, psychosocial vulnerabilities, and patterns associated with successful social reintegration. The research develops a child-centred explainable decision-support framework combining legal variables, social-investigation indicators, education and family factors, behavioural information, and rehabilitation outcomes.     
Particular emphasis is placed on fairness auditing, data minimization, human oversight, explainability, and the prohibition of automated determinations concerning criminal responsibility or transfer to adult courts.