Juvenile criminal offenses have long been a significant societal problem in modern society. In order to take affirmative steps toward reducing juvenile delinquency, it is important to accurately understand the root causes and the reasons underlying the problem, rather than accusing and imposing punishment.
To prevent the youth from committing crimes, actively generating theories and examining, developing theoretical explanations of juvenile delinquency is crucial. However, the inquiry on juvenile delinquency has not been extensively studied either in quantity or quality, especially in the field of felony crimes such as homicide, robbery, rape and arson.
In order to capture the blueprints of juvenile delinquency, the understanding of the various types and characteristics of the juvenile crimes which have varied according to social changes over time and places must be followed.
For this purpose, we must conduct an research based on experiences utilizing various approaches and methods toward the juvenile felony crimes. The purpose of this inquiry is to accurately understand the juvenile felony and the juvenile felony offenders in Korea by not only examining each type of juvenile felony crimes but also taking the environmental factors into account, coupled with the felony offender’s life experience, attitude towards life, bonds with close people around the juvenile felony offenders such as family.
The way that the prior researchers established in this field of study was neither taking intensive efforts to shape the scientific study of juvenile delinquency nor examining every type of various approaches, while as it is hard to explain the basic characteristics of juvenile felony crimes in general relying on limited methods. Accord, this study attempts to define, describe, explain, and respond to juvenile felony offenses supplementing the criminal sociological approach which have not fully been inquired so far.
In detail, this study will not only examine the basic characteristics as to the reasons why the juvenile felony offenses are committed, but also address the issue of why the felons resort to acts of felony at such young age in terms of criminology, the sources of motivation such as crime opportunity or situation, or how the criminal record changes the social bonds of the offenders.
In order to conduct this study, we tried to gather as many as specimens to raise the accuracy of this research and put my best effort to supplement the limitations of quantitative analysis by optimizing both methods of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis as well.
Specifically, this study analyzed every species of juvenile felony offenses with the ages taken into consideration, coupled with the comparison between the felons who served their sentences and who did not serve. Also, this study was conducted using the method of comparative research design sampling theft offenders, in order to distinguish misdemeanors. Also, the study sampled non-criminal juveniles, in order to figure out the differences between juvenile felony offenders and non-offenders of such crimes.
Throughout this study, the way in which this study defines felony is “a crime that has an element of the use, attempted use, threatened use, or substantial risk of use of physical force against the person, underlying substantial degree of violence arousing serious social harm that causing either physical, proprietary, or emotional damage of a person” and it includes murder, robbery, rape, and arson. In other words, the juvenile felony of this study encompasses murder, robbery, rape and arson committed by young people between the ages of 10 and 18.
The study has found the following results: i) older offenders were more likely to commit felony compared to younger offenders who committed robbery; ii) the offenders were more likely to commit felony impulsively rather than deliberately; iii) the offenders were more likely to commit felony against the younger victims than the theft. The average age of the felons at the time of the felony or the age difference between the felon and the victim was varied according to the species of the felony. Also, the juvenile felons were less likely to exercise self-control on themselves, and more likely having deviant peers or acquaintances that had been in trouble, being susceptible to developing and maintaining delinquent behavior.
In terms of the likely factors are to intensify the probabilities of youths becoming involved in felony offenses, young people who were less disciplined or supervised by their parents, being taken less care of and thus have feelings of being neglected, tend to be hostile towards the society and more likely to become felony offenders. Also the offenders were likely to have negative experience of social bonds and undergone negative life events.
The juvenile felonies such as murder, rape, or arson are fostered by a wide range of factors, especially by the negative consequences of economic crises such as poverty of the family. The juveniles who were born and raised in a poor family, who went through death, divorce of his parents, or physical abuse, disaffected from parents, are more likely to lose their ability to self-control and get into committing crime that they otherwise would not normally commit.
Juvenile who were disaffected from parents or school, having incidents of committing delinquency and rejected by the family and peers, have a higher risk of serious or persistent offending, in the course of hanging around in public places with the peers having similar experiences where .
The problem of delinquency is not a superficial blemish which can be removed as a personal matter with ease. Rather, it is an indication of weakness and maladjustment in the whole social organism. This study took wide range of factors which foster the consequent perpetuation of delinquency but not have been observed in prior domestic researches into account will shed some light on the problems relating to behaviors such as juvenile homicide, sex offender, robber, arson. Also, the analysis on the basic characteristics of the juvenile felony offenses, which are distinguished by its substantial severity from other deviate behavior or criminal offenses, will urge local authorities to become actively involved in preventing juvenile felony crime and reintegrating young felony offenders into society with the practical support.