Agreement with Juvenile Commutation
Counseling Rather than Punishment
Lee Seul Ki
Freshman
College of Veterinary Medicine
In Korea, the government has introduced the Juvenile Protection Act with the purpose of protecting teenagers from various harmful things such as drugs, harmful objects, and regulated shops. In addition, juvenile criminals have received lighter penalties as well. Therefore, some Koreans insist that mild punishments are not fair because adolescents who commit crimes have received severe punishments, but I suggest that teenagers should be punished lightly in spite of violent crimes.
First, it is incorrect that adolescents are prosecuted equally with adult's crimes. Since they are immature and thus it might be harder for them to judge whether certain behavior is fine or not. Teenagers and children are exposed easily to provocative and violent movies, television shows, and video on the internet these days. Sometimes they imitate some actions that they saw in the media because they think that kind of action is cool. Some teenagers commit a crime because their friends do it even though they recognize it is a bad behavior. Because adolescents are not same as adults, their behavior should be evaluated by different standards.
Second, we need to concentrate on why the rate of violent crime is increasing. It might be the failure of education. Because most adults focus on the test results such as the Korean SAT scores, teenagers try to get a high score in order to be excellent students; they do not make an effort to be a good person. Thus, overly heavy penalties to adolescent, criminals is not the correct answer.
Juvenile prison sentences are shorter than adult sentences, but longer prison terms are not a solution for preventing increasing violent crime. They are immature, and in a way, violent crime is due to lack of moral education. A heavier penalty is not a solution. We should examine the reason why thet commit violent crime and take care of the juveniles by providing them with the appropriate counseling.
Segregation Is Not a Solution
Lim Jae Kyun
Junior
Faculty of Liberal Arts
If there is anyone who tells us that the surest way to cope with juvenile delinquency is to send young offenders to jail, my answer is that we don't need to segregate them from our community. Everyone makes mistake in the course of their lifetime, but if they commit crimes like murder, sexual assaults, or robbery, they'll be imprisoned for a long time. When we witness prison inmates that committed crimes of this nature, we don't have to express our sympathy toward them. Compared to these case, juvenile delinquency is different. Let's think about the reason why lawmakers enacted the Juvenile Protection Act.
Most advanced nations also have a Juvenile Protection Act and give young offenders opportunities to repent for their wrongdoings. As we tackle this matter, we should condier whether regulation helps our country to guide a young criminals rightly or not. Here's one example. One study shows that a severe punishment policy is ineffective toward reducing the rate of the second conviction for juvenile offenders.
In addition, that policy saps our criminal justice system's resources and wreaks havoc on families. If that's not a good reason to oppose legal punishment against the young offenders, here's another solution. Many young offenders live in poverty and are languishing in the corners of our society. They don't get help from their parents because of parental divorce, the absence of parents, or poor relationships with one or both parents. Unless we extend helping hands to them, they'll be more and more isolated within a dysfunctional family. Finally, the life of them will be sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and discrimination.
For this reasons, I believe that to solve this problem rightly, we should lighten the legal punishment against the young offenders and strive to educate juvenile delinquents. Let us remember the immaturity of minors and give them other opportunities.
The Juvenile Protection Act Must Be Revised.
Seo Minwon
Senior, Department of English Language and Literature
In modern society, crime is becoming more and more brutal. Juvenile delinquency is no exception. It has become too malicious, and also the rate of juvenile delinquency is continuously on the rise. This is because adolescents are not punished properly due to the Juvenile Protection. Not only has this act been abused severely to protect juvenile criminals but also the crime rate of those teenagers is constantly increasing.
First of all, adolescent offenders are abusing the Juvenile Protection Act. Young offenders are not idiots. They know that hey will be protected by this Act even when they commit a crime. Since there is practically no punishment for young offenders, they do not care whether what they have done is wrong or not. For example, a group of teenagers kidnapped a female high school student in 2013, brutally torturing her to death. After they got caught by the police, one of the criminals said that they are okay because they are not going to receive harsh penalties due to this Protection Act. There is no doubt that these juvenile criminals are deliberately abusing the legal system.
Futhermore, the Juvenile Protection Act is contributing to the rise of the crime rate of teenagers. When a person does something wrong, a penalty should be given accordingly. Nevertheless, this is not the case here. Statistics by the National Statistical Office indicated that the crime rate of adolescents aged from 12 ~ 19 is increasing continuously over than last ten years. The purpose of the The purpose of the legal punishment system is to deter crimes as well as to bring justice to the victims and their families. Because those young offenders are not punished properly, the teenage crime rate will rise.
To sum up, there is considerable evidence that the Juvenile Protection Act works against justice. This act has been abused by adolescent criminals. Moreover, it is contributing to the rise of youth crime rate. In this regard, the Juvenile Protection Act should be revised.
Crime Should Be Punished Equally
Nam Ji Su
Sophomore,
Department of International Trade
Here is a superb way you could be safe even after committing a murder, rape, or brutal crime. The only required condition is that you must be under age of 19. Juvenile delinquents are those who have committed some crimes that violates the law under that age. Their criminal acts would have been punished if they were adults. The Juvenile Protection Act includes lighter sentencing to the prison than adults in the same circumstances. It is now controversial whether those minors should get legally punished or not and I am on the side that they should reap what they sow.
Some people say that juveniles are immature and not able to exercise good judgment, so they should be legally protected in such circumstances mentioned above. However, isn’t it absurd that one must be mature enough to think that murdering another human being is profoundly wrong? Is it take much time to realize that a life of a human being is valuable? I guess not.
A lady who lost a child says, ‘It is all because of my parents, since I learned from them.’ Which is apparently illogical. The society provides numerous opportunities to learn the fact that ‘all human beings are equal and every one of them should be respected for their existence.’ That which means that what they actually should have learned is they cannot blame their parents for their own behavior of committing a crime.
Crime should be punished equally in a strict way regardless of whether the subject is a minor or an adult. If you show unnecessary sympathy to them, those who conducted serious crimes will live a happy life unlike their victims and their victim’s family who will experience terrible suffering throughout their lives. A few years after they could be living as our neighbors, at your work place as a college, and in many instances committing additional crimes while we won't recognize.