CHENNAI: The incidents of crimes by juveniles in Tamil Nadu have gone up as 2,607 cases were registered in 2022, compared to 2,212 cases in 2021.
Overall, Tamil Nadu is ranked fourth in the list, while Maharashtra tops it with 4,406 cases. Madhya Pradesh with 3,795 cases and Rajasthan with 3,063 cases were ranked two and three respectively.
According to the NCRB data, in Tamil Nadu, the most cases were related to theft (548), closely followed by hurt/assault (425), rash driving (208), murder (102) and attempt to murder (101). Under special and local laws (SLL) cases, the most was under Pocso Act (238), apart from 33 cases under the Prohibition Act.
Among 3,287 juveniles arrested in 2022, 170 were discharged during investigation, while 35 were awarded imprisonment and 510 were acquitted or discharged. Besides, 1,044 juveniles were sent home with their parents after advice or admonition and 751 were sent to special homes, while 189 were dealt with fines.
In terms of education and family background of the arrested juveniles, 1,782 of them hailed from families with above matric to higher secondary education, and 769 hailed from families with above higher secondary education. Among the arrested juveniles, 2,955 were living with their parents and 146 were pavement dwellers.
Within metropolitan cities, Chennai stood second with 521 crime incidents in 2022. In 2021, it was 496. Delhi topped metropolitan cities with 2,336 crime incidents, compared to 2618 the previous year.