학교폭력예방을 위한 법제의 개선방안

Abstract

On Jan. 29, 2004, the government enacted the Act on Prevention of and Measures against School Violence ("the School Violence Prevention Act") designed to intervene in situations of violence in school. Under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the School Violence Prevention Act codifies the definition of school violence,policy-making against school violence, intervention techniques designed to address a school violence situation. After legislation,school violence has been mainly dealt with in accordance with the Act. However, after the passage of 8 years, contrary to all expectations, school violence is hardly dealt with pursuant to the Act, but handled unofficially or even covered up. The purpose of this study is first to understand the characteristics of the School Violence Prevention Act, second to classify the legal system of the Criminal Act, the Juvenile Act, and related Acts, and third to identify the problems of School Violence Prevention Act. There are no accurate statistics for evaluation of the decrease of school violence after the adoption of policies under the School Violence Prevention Act, but in truth the Act has not yet received favorable evaluations. The self-government committee performs poorly even though it is an organization for performing a core function with regards to after-the-fact measures against school violence. Moreover, due to a widespread misconception that school violence cases are bound to be dealt with mildly, our society gets indifferent to the criminal acts. Although the School Violence Prevention Act stipulates a considerable amount of support measures for victims, the question is whether they can receive counselling promptly and community care facilities are available whenever they need them. In light of the primary purpose of the School Violence Prevention Act that it intends to protect juvenile victims,substantial and realistic measures should be prepared. It would be undesirable if a written apology for school violence has a one-sided nature and imposed by force. An apology should be voluntary as an expression of true regret and self-reflection. Without assailants' sincere apology, voluntary conflict resolution has no meaning. Far from abolishing the measure of a written apology for fear of a compulsory apology,we should devise conflict resolution means leading to genuine regret and apology. Most juvenile assailants tend to regard community service or special education as light penalties, which indicates failure of educational interaction. When violent assailants in school have shown no sign of repentance or committed violent crimes over again, they should be brought to the judicial procedure. Even in the judicial process,the judicial punishment runs the risk of being regarded not seriously so long as the present juvenile judicial procedure like releasing on warning, suspension of indictment or placement on probation with the parents are abused. Therefore, to combat school violence, imposition of school discipline and juvenile judicial punishment should be balanced with the common goal of rehabilitation of juvenile assailants. The reconciliation recommendation system, as one of restorative justice, has been implemented at the level of the court proceedings. It is necessary to implement restorative justice model at the level of police and prosecution as well.