소년의 형사연령에 관한 고찰

Abstract

This study is Lowering the Juvenile Age Requirement of the Criminal Responsibility, especially The Relation between Determining the Age of Criminal Minor in Criminal Law and the System of Protective Disposition of Juvenile Offenders in Juvenile Law. The Age of criminal minor in current criminal law should be reviewed to be lowered due to the age, getting more outrageous of juvenile crime. The Criminal Law and the Juvenile Law surpasses the old and past one, both in the protection of Juvenile Rights and the improvement of correctional treatment. The current Criminal Law and Juvenile Law has been revised several times for the purpose of strengthening the ability of adaptation to a society for Juveniles. To resolve the conflicts between the idea that Juveniles have their consitutional rights and the reality that basic rights of Juveniles could be confined as necessary, we should discuss more concretely about the scopes and ranges of juvenile rights. This study will provide us with useful knowledge theoretically and empirically, especially to the Juvenile Age Requirement of the juvenile protection cases. An argument to lower the criminal liability age is appeared as one of measures to strongly counteract the school violence committed by elementary students or low grade of middle school students. A bill lowering the minimum age of criminal liability for a child offender from 14 to 12 years of age was filed at the House of Representatives. The Korean Juvenile Law was already revised because of cruel juvenile crimes by younger juveniles in December 2007. This motion just emphasizes on protecting the children who are 10 to 13 years old, at the committing crime. Korean Criminal Law cannot punish the children and cannot protect the victims without lowering the minimum age of criminal liability for a child offender. Juveniles should be the target of protection rather than punishment even if they commit a crime, because they are an immature being and are easy to be influenced by environment. The lowering of the age of juvenile is not the best one of effective measures according to characteristics of the recent juvenile crimes, but to consider the measures to diversify and vitalize the protective disposition system for juvenile offenders in educational aspects which seems to be more suitable. Study on the Age of Juveniles is to ensure sound fostering of juveniles by carrying out necessary measures, such as protective dispositions, etc. for the environmental adjustment and character correction of juveniles anti-social behavior, and by providing special measures regarding criminal dispositions. In conclusion, this research will be a study for the new way of correctional treatment to Juveniles to improve considerably. The traditional ideas of The current Juvenile Law and Criminal Law should be modified by the constitutional principles named the so - called juvenile justice. The Juvenile Law and Criminal Law should be consistent with the constitution and the theory of constitutional juvenile justice. In relation to practical problems and reformative approaches in juvenile justice processing, we need attention to The Relation between Determining the Age of juvenile in The Juvenile Act and the System of Protective Disposition of Juvenile Offenders in Juvenile Law. Kew