‘Adolescence’, India edition: Country sees sharp rise in violent crimes among juvenile offenders

Critically acclaimed British mini-series Adolescence sparked conversations on rising violent crimes among juveniles. Data shows that violent crimes by juveniles are rising across the world, including in India.

Adolescence, a British mini-series released a few months ago, tells the chilling story of a 13-year-old boy, Jamie, who murders his classmate, Katie. It was critically acclaimed for its single-take format, powerful performances, seamless direction, and excellent storytelling.

More importantly, the series sparked conversations not just in the U.K. but worldwide about issues such as cyberbullying, involuntary celibate (incel) subculture, casual online misogyny, the behavioural shifts in adolescence, and the increasingly complex world that boys find themselves navigating today.

The series sought to examine why a young boy committed a violent crime. This is an important attempt as data shows that violent crimes by juveniles are rising across the world, including in India. Violent crimes include sexual offences such as rape, acts of physical violence such as murder, bodily injury or attempted murder, and other offences such as arson, dacoity, and robbery.

Offences such as rash driving, causing death by negligence, forgery, cheating, trespassing, fraud, pickpocketing, thefts, and obscene acts in public places have been excluded from this analysis as they are all considered mostly non-violent in nature.

The chart shows the share of youth apprehended for violent crimes out of all the youth apprehended for criminal offences in select countries between 2016 and 2020.

Even in the brief period considered, the share of youth apprehended for violent crimes rose considerably. For instance, in the U.K., the share increased from 50% to 57% among juveniles.

The pattern is the same in India too. Last month, a 13-year-old boy in Hubli, Karnataka, was taken into custody for stabbing his 15-year-old friend following an argument over chips. In another incident last month, police in Chennai arrested 12 people — seven of them minors — for the alleged rape and sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl.