2.2 Concept of Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency — the antisocial or illegal conduct of the young: in the legal frame, the acts of a child that would be crimes if committed by an adult, plus the status offences (the age-only infractions: truancy, running away, curfew — conduct "criminal" only because of the doer's age). The two definitions' rivers (the exam's distinction): The legal — the statute's age-and-conduct boundaries (the delinquent by the law's definition); The sociological — the broader antisocial-behaviour stream (the delinquent as a developmental phase, not a type). The terminology's evolution (the short-note banker): "juvenile delinquent" — the older, stigmatising label (the delinquent as a defective type); "child in conflict with law" — the CRC- era reframing: the child is not a delinquent being but a person in a situation of conflict with the law — the conduct named, not the identity; Nepal's statutes and the Court's modern practice speak in the conflict-with-law frame.