Juvenile offenders with no criminal responsibility on steady rise

The number of teenage felons aged between 10 and 13, with no criminal responsibility, has been on a steady rise in recent years, a police report showed Thursday.

Last year, 8,474 people in the age group committed violent crimes, marking an increase for the third consecutive year from 7,081 in 2019 and 7,535 in 2020, according to a National Police Agency report submitted to Rep. Kim Hoi-jae of the ruling Democratic Party.

Currently, those aged 14 and younger cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions and are sent to juvenile detention facilities, not prisons, or do community service, according to the Juvenile Act.

A total of 35,390 young teenagers were sent to juvenile courts between 2017 and 2021 on felony charges, such as murder, sexual assault, robbery, theft and arson.

The report also showed that 22,202 13-year-olds committed felonies over the past five years, accounting for the biggest share of juvenile offenders at 62.7 percent, followed by 7,388 12-year-olds, 3,387 11-year-olds and 2,413 10-year-olds.

By type of crime, theft was committed the most by 22,993 people, followed by physical assault at 10,199, sexual assault at 1,913, robbery at 47 and murder at nine.

"Crimes committed by teenagers defended by their minor status are becoming more cruel and atrocious," Kim said, claiming the age of criminal responsibility should be lowered from 14 to 13 and those who repeatedly commit crimes should be criminally punished. (Yonhap)