Moral panic déjà vu - A qualitative study to understand the adoption of new juvenile laws in India after Nirbhaya gang rape case

Abstract

The existing literature suggests that India took a regressive step when it introduced a new juvenile law after the Nirbhaya rape case, which allows treatment of youth offenders committing heinous crimes as adults. This study investigates whether there was a genuine and pressing need to enact the new law to curb the youth menace or whether it was a political move to appease public outrage. To explore this question, a qualitative discourse analysis was conducted on newspaper articles published in two widely circulated English dailies in India, covering the period from the date of the rape incident to the date of pronouncement of judgment by the Sessions Court in this matter. The analysis, guided by the theory of moral panic and relevant literature on moral panics involving youth offenders, reveals that India, like several countries around the world, enacted the new punitive law in response to public demand rather than empirical evidence. The enacted law has failed to achieve the desired outcomes, and India continues to wait for comprehensive legal, institutional, and cultural reforms to ensure a safer and more inclusive society for women. Key words: youth offenders, juvenile justice, moral panic, Nirbhaya case, media discourse, gender-based violence, folk hero