From koreantimes
Juvenile Crime Increasing
Juvenile crimes have been on the rise over the last few years while the average age of teenage criminals has been decreasing.
Crimes committed by minors from 12- to 19-years-old jumped from 25,946 in 2006 to 41,754 last year, according to Rep. Joo Kwang-deok of the governing Grand National Party.
According to research, the main reason crimes were committed was to make money to spend on entertainment. Crimes committed by accident and out of curiosity followed.
By charges, larceny was the highest with 10,920 cases while violence and committing traffic violations as members of motorcycle gangs followed. The number of juveniles committing felonies, such as robbery and assault, also went up from last year.
In 2001, 20 percent of juvenile offenders were 17-year-olds followed by 16- and 18-year-olds. Last year, 23 percent were 16 and 18 percent were 15.
Joo said each judge of the Busan Family Court handled 4,913 juvenile cases last year. “It is impossible for (the judges) to be in charge of every case and we need to establish a court for juvenile offences or assign more judges,” he said.
No more than five years ago, the term “juvenile delinquent” mainly referred to badly-behaved male students in secondary schools. But now it is quite difficult to identify the gender of offenders when individuals hear about a crime in which young students are involved. It is because the number of female teenagers causing serious crimes is poised to outnumber that by males.
In December last year, a user created content (UCC) in which several female students in school uniform are assaulting another girl student was posted on a local UCC-only Web site.
The offenders were punching, slapping and kicking the victim. They even attempted to strip off the victim’s uniform.
Fortunately, the police, who had tracked them down through a cyber investigation, charged them with mob violence.
In May this year, ten female students from a primary school in Daejeon, North Chungcheong Province, were involved a group fight that left several casualties including one student suffering brain-damaged. The reason for the fight was trivial: one group of students provoked another, saying they did not want to see their colleagues studying English in a classroom.
While types of female-led misconducts in the past were limited to something unpremeditated and minor, recent crimes break down the time-honored legacy.
The following is a case showing how brutal and violent current female student-led crimes are.
In November 2005, a 16-year-old girl was seized in Seoul on suspicion of running a buying-and selling-sex business.
Reportedly, she conned several runaway girls with a proposition to make money and then forced them into prostitution. She even extorted what they earned. The money she had blackmailed for a month amounted to 1.3 million won ($1,500). Reportedly, she frequently assaulted those who refused to sell their bodies.
Crimes by female juvenile on the rise
The number of crimes committed by female attackers is increasing.
Statistics compiled by the Foundation for Preventing Youth Violence (FPYV) show how steeply the number has grown.
In 1999, female students accounted for only 2.2 percent of all offenders causing in-school crimes. But the number soared to 10 percent in 2006.
According to a report released by the National Court Administration, a total of 25,946 juveniles were charged in 2006 with committing physical and psychological crimes such as physical violence, verbal abuse, bullying and extortion. The number has declined after hitting its highest of 30,706 in 2001.
These figures indicate that the overall number of such crimes reported to local courts has gradually dropped.
But the interesting thing is that the percentage of juveniles convicted is increasing. While, around 4,700 or 15 percent of those charged in 2001 were put behind bars, a fourth of those charged last year were imprisoned.
Moderate punishment makes it worse
As the figures above show, female students are no longer just victims of school violence.
Many school authorities and the government are also stepping up their efforts to curb the upward tendency. But many experts say moderate punishment against school attackers is making the situation worse.
A 13-year-old girl had her 11th police investigation in 2005. She was charged with breaking into a neighbor’s home to steal valuables. What she did was serious enough to be jailed. But she was released following the investigation due to her age. Her first crime was actually not that serious. But her school had no countermeasures against school crimes.
Teachers at the school, who had once scolded her for a series of wrongdoings, paid no attention to her as her misdeeds persisted.
She became familiar with bad boys around the school and then started getting involved in crimes such as theft, assault and even hou
I fear that the root cause of South Korea’s rising juvenile crime rate is because of the environment South Korean children are placed in. Sure, South Korea has a generally low crime rate, but the government must do something before this gets too out of hand.
Consider this – South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in all of the OCED nations. The statistics for South Korean teenagers are particularly high.
Why is this so? Because of the intense academic pressure that the schools and hagwons put the children under. Some are studying late into 1 or 2 am doing school/hagwon work. When schools fail to function as community centers (which South Korean schools fail to do) students often drift further away from school and drift into questionable activity. What schools in South Korea must do is embrace students and make school a more relaxing, captivating place to stay. They must offer more extracurriculars and offer more counseling programs. They must give students more choice in what they get out of high school rather than making them go through a strict predetermined course. I have faith that South Korea will be able to do this. However it is only a matter of when.
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