In the fourth quarter of 2019, a boy who received probation was found to
take an average of 179 days or about 6 months from arrest to disposition in
the juvenile court. In particular, it took an average of 109 days to receive a
disposition after being sent to the juvenile court, and it was found that it took
the longest time among the total case processing procedures. Prolonging the
duration of case processing can lead to various problems. First, it is difficult
to secure recruits of delinquent boys at trial. Second, as the gap between crime
and punishment increases, it is difficult for punishment to elicit reflection and
improvement on the delinquent boy's misconduct. Third, while waiting for the
trial, there are cases of school interruption due to psychological anxiety or fear
of disposition, and there is a concern that school interruption may intensify the
boy's misconduct propensity. Among the boys who received probation, 20.9%
of the boys re-offended during the incident processing period, and the recidivism
rate of high-risk probation boys was much higher at 46%.

These data, on the one hand, suggest that efforts should be made to eliminate
unnecessary delays in the juvenile case handling process (especially, unnecessary
delays in disposition decisions after being sent to juvenile court). On the other
hand, it implies that it is necessary to prepare a pre-trial supervision program
to supervise and custody delinquent boys during the period from the investigation
stage to the pre-decision stage in order to prevent recidivism of delinquent boys
waiting for trial.

The purpose of this study is to present basic principles to be considered in
operating a pre-trial supervisory system for delinquent boys, and to present
specific plans for the operation of the system.
In order to achieve the above research objectives, three research topics were
dealt with. First, using empirical data, this study analyzed the time taken to deal
with delinquent boy cases, re-offenses of delinquent boys during the case
processing period, and the current status and problems of pre-trial intervention
programs being implemented at each stage of the juvenile justice system. Second,
this study comparatively reviewed legislation and operational status related to
the pre-trial supervisory system in the US, UK, Germany and Japan. Finally, this
study presented the basic principles and specific operational plans to be
considered when operating the pre-trial supervisory system by synthesizing the
first and second research topics.

The detailed operation plan of the pre-trial supervisory system is as follows.
Diversification and activation of temporary measures
In order to secure the effectiveness of Article 18 (1) 1 ('consignment of a
guardian' and 'consignment to a suitable person who can protect a boy'), the
juvenile court judges should be added compliance requirements with the needs
of juvenile supervision and custody, and juvenile justice agencies should supervise
whether delinquent juveniles violate these requirements. In other words, it is
necessary to establish “supervision by probation officer” or “supervision by
probation officer over compliance matters” as a type of temporary measure. It
is considered more appropriate to include “restriction of going out” and
“prohibition of access to victims” as a compliance requirement to be observed
rather than introducing separate temporary measures.

In order to revitalize the juveniles Act Article 18 (1) “consignment to suitable
facilities that can protect boys,” it is necessary to consider directly operating
a small, open boarding system for delinquent boys by the government, such as
the UK or the US.
For delinquent boys who do not attend school, the effectiveness of recidivism
prevention is low simply by adding a condition of in-person contact with a
probation officer once or twice a month for home detention, so the day reporting
center or evening reporting center operated in the United States needs to be
introduced as a new interim measure. It is also necessary to consider a plan
to designate 'Youth Center', 'Out-of-School Youth Support Center', and 'Youth
Delinquency Prevention Center' as a day reporting center or an evening reporting
center.

As delinquent boys with psychological or mental health problems have
increased in recent years, it is necessary to introduce psychological counseling
orders and mental health treatment orders as one of the temporary measures
for boys with these characteristics.

Use of temporary measures in the investigation stage
Currently, the only way to supervise a criminal boy who is likely to file a
prosecution or be sent to a juvenile protection case at the stage of the
investigation is 'detention', but the detention usually targets criminal boys who
are likely to file a prosecution. Therefore, detention is not a pre-trial intervention
measure applicable to criminal boys who are likely to be sent to juvenile
protection cases. Although there is no need for detention at the stage of
investigation, intrim measures should be made available to boys who need
supervision or custody to prevent recidivism or protect victims while pending
trial.

The jurisdiction of juvenile crimes in the investigation stage is not clear. This
is because it is before the prosecutor decides whether to prosecute to the criminal
court or send it to the juvenile protection case. However, in terms of enhancing
the expertise in handling juvenile cases, it is more appropriate to give juvenile
courts jurisdiction over the decision of interim measures for juveniles to be
prosecuted by the criminal courts. Based on the same logic, even in areas where
juvenile courts are not established, it is considered more appropriate to give
juvenile courts jurisdiction over the decision of interim measures.
If consignment of juvenile classification review center is allowed in the
investigation stage, the investigative agency will have two available alternatives
for juvenile criminal suspects who need to secure recruits: ‘detention’ and
‘consignment for juvenile classification review center.’ In this case, there is a
risk that the investigative agency will abuse the consignment of the juvenile
classification review center as a means to more easily detain criminal boys for
a longer period of time. Therefore, consignment of juvenile classification review
center should be excluded from the types of temporary measures that can be
used in the investigation stage.

Restrictions on boys subject to temporary measures
Intrim measures in the investigation stage should be limited to juvenile offender.
And, the targets of interim measures from the sending as a juvenile protection
case to the pre-trial stage are juvenile who committed crimes under the age of
14 and juvenile offender over the age of 14. Lastly, in the case of consignment
of juvenile classification examiners, only juvenile offender who are 14 years of
age or older should be eligible.