ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the negation of offense. Violent response to trivial provocation or even the initiation of aggression may qualify as negations of crime since the rival company may be accused of some symbolic or historic offense. The law and the sub-cultural delinquent concur in the belief that self-defence negates an offense. From the delinquent viewpoint, however, the offense is certainly mitigated and negated. The offense may be negated and responsibility absolved through accidents of circumstance. Indeed, the juvenile status itself is taken as a mitigation of the offense, thus justifying a specialized court with distinctive approach and philosophy. Thus, the defence to crime based on infancy is slightly extended to warrant special treatment of juveniles. The juvenile court masquerades as a civil court despite its tell-tale dealings in penal sanction. Even among its many proponents the disguise of civil court is rather a joke—one that is beginning to wear thin.
