Indian legal system still in struggle for perfect balance

India's cabinet has approved a bill to allow children over 16 to be tried as adults for serious crimes like rape and murder. The move follows calls for stricter punishment for juveniles after a 17-year-old known only as Raju was among those convicted of gang rape and murder in Delhi in December 2012. At present, juvenile courts can jail those under 18 for at most three years. Under the bill, which still needs the approval of parliament, minors convicted in adult courts would face longer jail terms but would still be spared the death penalty or life imprisonment. The planned legislation is aimed as a deterrent for juvenile offenders and to protect victims' rights, but child rights organisations have criticised the bill. Children can and do sometimes commit crimes as violent as those committed by adults, and the pain and anger of a victim or their family may well be the same regardless of whether a crime was committed by a child or an adult. But one must remember that children's culpability, even when they commit 'adult' crimes, is different because of their immaturity. Their punishment should acknowledge this difference, reflect children's special capacity for reform and rehabilitation, and be grounded in an understanding of adolescent psychology. In other words, there needs to be a balance between making sure offenders get what they deserve and taking the age and maturity of the offenders into account.