President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol made a promise to lower the age of punishment to 12, saying that the crimes of juveniles under the age of 14 are becoming more intelligent and violent.
[Yoon Seok-yeol/Elected (October of last year): Decrease the age of the boy in the law to 12...
.]
The Ministry of Justice announced in its report on the transition committee that it would actively participate in the discussion of law amendments to fulfill the promises made by President-elect Yoon.
[Park Beom-gye/Minister of Justice: It is worth reviewing because there is a public opinion that the age of heinous crimes is getting lower and that systematic responses to them are insufficient by the current standards for juveniles.
] It did not specifically report whether it would be lowered.
The amendment to the juvenile law, which is being discussed in the National Assembly, contains the content to lower the age of juveniles to 12 or 13 years of age.
The amendment takes into account the fact that among all criminal minors under the age of 14, the crime rate for 13-year-olds exceeds 70%.
If the juvenile standard is lowered to the age of 12, the current 6th graders of elementary school or the 1st graders of middle school will be subject to criminal punishment, not protection.
The number of juveniles who have committed violent crimes over the past five years has increased from 6,200 in 2017 to 8,400 last year.
Adjustment of the age of juveniles by law was initially attempted by the Moon Jae-in administration, but was faltered due to public opinion demanding a cautious approach.
As both the government and the National Assembly are showing active discussion, attention is focused on whether it will lead to systemic change for the first time since the enactment of the 1953 law.
This is SBS Han So-hee.
(Video coverage: Seol Min-hwan / Editing: Lee Seung-hee)