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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.
While the total number of juveniles in conflict with the law declined from 37,402 in 2017 to 33,261 in 2022 in India, the share of those apprehended for violent offences steadily increased. The chart shows the share of juveniles apprehended for violent offences out of all the juveniles apprehended in India (2016-2022)
In 2016, of all the juveniles apprehended, 32.5% were caught for committing violent crimes. By 2022, this figure had risen to 49.5%. This means that half the juveniles who were in conflict with the law were apprehended for violent offences.
A State-wise breakdown of violent crimes committed by juveniles in India shows that Madhya Pradesh accounted for 20% of all such cases between 2017 and 2022, followed by Maharashtra with 18%. The chart shows the State-wise breakdown of violent crimes committed by juveniles in India (2017-2022). Only top States are depicted.
Rajasthan (9.6%), Chhattisgarh (8.4%), and Tamil Nadu (5%) ranked third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. Delhi stood out. Despite its relatively small size, the capital accounted for 6.8% of all violent crimes committed by juveniles in the country, possibly due to better policing and reporting of such cases.
Regarding the proportion of violent crimes among all juvenile offences within each State, Jharkhand had the highest share (67%) in the 2017 to 2022 period. In Tripura, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, over 60% of the juvenile offences can be classified as violent in the same period. The map shows the proportion of violent crimes among all juvenile offences within each State.
The last chart and map, when read together, show that many central and eastern States are hotspots for violent juvenile crimes, with Madhya Pradesh being the most affected. Odisha, however, remains an exception in the region, with only 10% of all juvenile crimes being violent in nature.
The data for the charts were sourced from NCRB, Statistics Canada, U.S. Department of Justice, and Office of National Statistics. Only IPC crimes have been considered
Published - June 13, 2025 07:00 am IST
English (US) ·