Juvenile criminals to face harsh punishment
The government will consider all options, including a revision of the Juvenile Law, to better protect children from their violent peers, Education Minister Kim Sang-gon said Tuesday.
Following a series of recent brutal attacks at middle and high schools, Kim pledged to come up with more effective measures to prevent such crimes.
He also said he will start a discussion with the Ministry of Justice and the National Assembly over whether it is necessary to review the law, which protects juveniles from receiving harsh punishment.
The decision came a day after a request from President Moon Jae-in. During a meeting with senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, Moon said the government should respond to the online petition for a revision of the law, which has been signed by 260,000 people, to strengthen punishment for juvenile crimes.
The current law stipulates that the maximum sentence for someone under the age of 19 committing a crime of extreme violence is a 20-year prison sentence. But almost no one receives it; in fact, very few actually serve time in prison. Criminals 14 years old or younger either have to perform community service or receive no punishment at all. Minors also do not get criminal records.
The problem is that, thanks to wider access to information, young offenders know the worst thing they can get, and abuse the leniency of the law.
When middle school students assaulted their peer for 90 minutes with a soju bottle, bricks and a steel frame in Busan earlier this month — the incident that triggered discussions over a law revision — one of them asked the girl, “Do you think we will go to jail?”
After the incident came into the media spotlight, the perpetrators also exchanged messages like “This will be forgotten, going to a juvenile reformatory won’t be too bad.”
Lawmakers, including former police officer Rep. Pyo Chang-won of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), have already proposed bills to toughen punishment for juvenile crimes, saying many abuse the law.
Given that many opposition party lawmakers agree to the necessity of a law revision, it is likely that juvenile criminals will soon face harsher punishment.
According to a recent survey by local pollster Realmeter, 90 percent of respondents said they want either to revise or completely abolish the law.
But some take a more cautious approach. Rep. Keum Tae-sup of the DPK and Korea University law professor Ha Tae-hoon are among the people who defend the current system, saying keeping young criminals behind bars longer won’t solve the problem fundamentally.