소년의 책임능력과 청소년 교정: 소년법 개정 논란을 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the issues surrounding juvenile delinquency and the revision of the Juvenile Law due to the recent aging of juvenile crime. The Juvenile Act defines the age of criminal responsibility as 14 years, and the age of 14 is the age to judge whether or not it has the ability to control impulse and decision making ability. In particular, crime boys who committed crimes between the ages of 14 and 19 were commuted on a protectionist basis, unlike adults. The issues of revising the Juvenile Law are concentrated on the aging of juvenile delinquency, and the debate between strictness and warmth about the need to adjust the upper and lower age limits due to fogging. This study is meaningful in suggesting desirable direction of juvenile correction by analyzing such controversies from the perspective of criminal law and humanities. The contents of the study are as follows. First, I examined the meaning of 14 years old, which was set as a criterion for judging whether or not there is a responsibility ability. Secondly, we summarized the basic claim and the grounds of the severe punishment that raised the necessity of amendment of juvenile law. Next, the opposition to the revision of the Juvenile Act was suggested from the perspective of nationalism and protectionist ideology. Finally, in the desirable direction of juvenile correction, the necessity of humanistic approach is suggested by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each of strictness and warmth. The results of the study are as follows. The fourteen-year- old, judging the responsibility of the juvenile justice system, should be reviewed in terms of epistemology such as judicial ability and normative ability as well as critical judgment ability. Responsibility is the ability to exercise freedom of choice and should be distinguished by motive and action. Second, Severe Punishment requires post-correction, Paternalism is a pre-correction, and each has advantages and disadvantages. Third, juvenile correction should be conducted in the form of education that can raise cognitive ability and normative ability from the protectionist point of view considering the characteristics of adolescents in the process of personality formation.