Youth arrested in extortion cases in Mumbai city: processes of entry and after

Abstract

Youth is a critical stage in life, full of challenges, confusions and insecurities. It is a phase that acts as a bridge between childhood and adulthood. It is a change-oriented and a ‘questioning’ phase and includes concepts like identity, role and dynamism. Soares (2000) defines youth as both a social concept created to define the particular way that human beings see themselves and others at a particular point in their lives, and a useful sociological concept. Today, there is a crisis of confidence and feeling of unrest in large sections of youth in the country today. The issue of youth in crime is an area of increasing concern in the context of the fact that crime rates have been steadily rising in urban India. With liberalization and growth of a consumer economy, newer avenues in the illegal sector have emerged, which have direct absorption and income generating avenues for the educated and semi-educated youth. The dearth of research in India in the area of youth offender studies, and especially those involved in serious offences and organised crime, may stem from a general lack of focus in the country on youth as a social category. Criminal justice processing may convert young offenders into ‘criminals’. The consequent subsuming of identity could lead to obfuscation of valuable data about what happens to them, once they join the ranks of socially excluded populations in our society. It is in this context that there is a need to look at who constitutes this group, what their profile is, what their experiences and views on the CJS are, and how they view their life chances. It is important to find ways to re-integrate this group in the mainstream, in the light of the fact that the illegal sector is ready and waiting to re-absorb them. These issues constitute largely the concerns of this study. Objectives 1. To study the socio-economic, family, education and work background of the male youth offenders allegedly involved in property offences of serious nature. 2. To examine from the alleged male youth offenders’ viewpoint, the factors that contributed to his entry into the criminal nexus leading to his arrest and re-arrest and his views on family, peer and gender relations, religion and the criminal justice system and processing. 3. To study the social supports available to the youth prisoner to address his imprisonment related and post-release problems. 4. To understand the legal, social and livelihood-related processes that unfolds in the life of the alleged youth offender after his release from police/prison custody.