“I HEARD that if you’re not 14 yet, you don’t go to prison, even for murder. Is that true? Awesome,” says a 13-year-old juvenile at court after murdering an elementary school student. Although this is a fictional line from the South Korean Netflix series Juvenile Justice, Korea has, in fact, recorded nine juvenile murders in the past five years[1]. Juvenile delinquency in South Korea rose steadily from a figure of 2.23% in 2008 to 5.31% in 2020[2]. Yet, despite the murderers’ cruelty, all of them went unpunished because they were under South Korea’s minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is 14. As heinous crimes continued to be followed by insufficient punishments, the South Korean government felt the need to reduce the minimum age of criminal responsibility in an attempt to prevent further juvenile crimes.

The change

   As of now, South Korean teenagers aged 14 to 19 are charged according to the Criminal Act or Juvenile Act based on the nature of the crime. However, offenders aged 10 to 13—criminal minors—can legally only be tried with the Juvenile Act, and those under the age of 10 cannot face any legal consequences. The most significant difference between the two acts is that people tried under the Criminal Act can receive serious punishments––a maximum of 20 years of imprisonment––while criminal minors under the Juvenile Act do not receive any legal punishments whatsoever. The severest punitive action that can be taken against them are two years of incarceration at a juvenile detention center and community service without a criminal record[1].

   With South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol promising to lower the criminal age of liability to address juvenile crimes during his election campaign, officials from the Ministry of Justice met with the Chief of the Presidential Transition Committee in March, expressing their commitment towards supporting Yoon’s campaign pledge[3]. On June 8, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon ordered the Ministry of Justice to review ways to lower the age of criminal minors from 14 to 12, and the ministry promised to work with lawmakers and relevant government authorities like the Ministry of Education to revise juvenile laws[4]. Aside from lowering the criminal age, the ministry is also planning to apply strict standards for any instance of juvenile delinquency. One proposed policy suggests that not only should criminal minors go through police investigations, but that the juvenile detention system should be utilized so that “police superintendents can directly refer cases to the competent court[5].” 

Causes

   President Yoon’s proposal to reduce the minimum age of criminal liability was influenced by the recent surge in juvenile crimes in Korea. The number of crimes committed by minors in 2021 was 8,374, which was a 34.8% increase from 2017[6]. Furthemore, on March 31, Representative Kim Hoi-jae from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea revealed that 35,390 teenagers under the age of 14 were accused of violent crimes in the four years between 2017 to 2021. Among these crimes, there were 10,199 battery crime cases, 1,913 sex crime cases, 47 robbery cases, and 9 murder cases. Kim also noted that underage crimes are becoming crueler and more violent these days, underscoring the need to lower the age of criminal responsibility[1]. 

   The South Korean public has also been calling for a radical reform to the current version of the Criminal Act after witnessing horrific crimes from minors in recent years. For instance, in July of 2018, two middle school boys raped a middle school girl, which led her to commit suicide five months later[6]. People across Korea expressed massive outrage and called for strong punishment for these criminal minors; regardless of the offenders’ age, the public perceived the nature of their crime to be cruel and worthy of harsh punishment. However, because both offenders were 13 years old, their crimes were reviewed under the Juvenile Act instead of the Criminal Act, and the perpetrators went unpunished. Over 230,000 people signed a petition that advocated strengthening punitive actions for criminal minors by lowering the age of criminality. 

Reasons to lower the age of criminality

   There are voices in South Korea calling the original Criminal Act outdated, as the minimum age of criminal responsibility has stayed at 14 since 1958. Moreover, criminal minors have shown to have  higher reoffending rates than adults. According to the Ministry of Justice, while 4.5% of adults became repeat criminals in 2021, the reoffending rate for criminal minors was 12%[4]. Therefore, in order to reduce the juvenile reoffending rate in South Korea, it seems reasonable to support stronger punishments against underage offenders and lower the bar of punitive action.

   Moreover, the minimum age for criminal responsibility at 12 years of age is not unusual compared to other countries. Even though there is no international standard for the minimum age of legal liability, a significant number of developed countries are trying to lower the age at which people can be considered criminal minors. While France classifies offenders under the age of 13 as criminal minors, the criminal liability age is 10 in the United Kingdom[2]. Moreover, in the United States, any teenager over 11 can be tried for federal crimes like adult felons and 33 U.S. states even allow punitive actions against minors regardless of their age[2]. Even if South Korea lowers its minimum age of criminality to 12, it will find itself on the same page as other developed countries.

Reasons not to lower the age of criminality

   While the discussion of lowering the legal liability age has received a great amount of support, many oppose the potential change. Some experts like Oh Yoon-sung (Prof., Dept. of Criminology and Police Admin., Soonchunhyang Univ.) point out that lowering the criminal age would not bring any significant change to the current trend of juvenile crimes because “Only children who have committed highly serious crimes will be subject to the Criminal Act, and the majority will be subjected to the Juvenile Act as usual[3].” Oh explained that the main problem with juvenile crime is that a small minority of children commit crimes as cruel as adult felons’ crimes, and he asserted, “In reality, about just 1% of criminal minors will likely be punished by the Criminal Act[3].”

   Rather than imposing criminal punishments such as suspended prison terms, lawyer Kim Su-hyeon and other legal experts claim that it would be better to utilize protective detention for criminal minors. They advocate protective detention as “a faithful application of the idea behind the Juvenile Act” as it would give criminal minors the opportunity to repent for their crimes[6]. Likewise, the National Human Rights Commission is opposing the proposal to lower the minimum age of Criminal Act liability, emphasizing that the focus of juvenile criminal justice should be education and reform. Chun Jong-ho, a Senior Judge at the Daegu District Court, has also commented that reforming the Crime Victim Protection Act is more pertinent for victims of juvenile crimes than lowering the criminal liability age is[3].

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   While the issue of juvenile crime has been a long-standing one, the Ministry of Justice has only recently expressed explicit support for President Yoon’s plan to lower the age of criminal liability, making the change very likely in the near future[1]. With the increase in the number and severity of juvenile crimes, a change to the current juvenile system seems necessary. Yet, concerns remain regarding whether harsher sentences for underage offenders will be an effective solution to reducing juvenile crimes in South Korea.

[1] The Korea Herald

[2] The UOS Times

[3] INQUIRER.net

[4] The Korea Herald

[5] The Korea Times

[6] Asia News Network

[7] The Korea Herald