Uttar Pradesh sees 23% jump in juvenile crime, 1,282 booked in 2020

LUCKNOW: Even as crime against children declined, the offences committed by juveniles shot up by 23% in 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics.
As many as 976 crimes were committed by children in 2019 which went up to 1,282 in 2020.
Data shows that 238 cases of crimes were committed by minors under the POSCO Act, followed by theft (219), burglary (75) and rape (54 cases).
Out of 1,282 minors booked in 2020, at least 575 had passed Class 10. As per the record of cities mentioned in NCRB report, Lucknow recorded 120 cases of crimes committed by juveniles in 2020, up from 63 reported in 2019. In Kanpur, 10 cases were committed by juveniles in 2019 which rose to 15 in 2020.
A senior police official attributed the rise to lack of employment opportunities during coronavirus lockdown.