Juvenile criminals' normal social rehabilitation can be the ultimate purpose of adolescent correctional welfare and the core of juvenile judicial system. In comparison with this importance, the research performance related to such social rehabilitatio...
Juvenile criminals' normal social rehabilitation can be the ultimate purpose of adolescent correctional welfare and the core of juvenile judicial system. In comparison with this importance, the research performance related to such social rehabilitation is not so much. The reason is that most studies on juvenile crimes focus on criminal actual conditions, criminal motives and backgrounds, criminal influencing factors, and institutional protection measures. Especially, the research concerns focus on the construction and operation of punishment-centered judicial system. Even the social rehabilitation research is interested only in the reintegration of juvenile criminals, but does not study the paradigm shift of correctional treatments or various social rehabilitation programs like western advanced nations.
Taking notice of this point, the purpose of this study is to discuss the social rehabilitation programs of the Korean adolescent judicial system. In particular, this study takes notice of the two following points.
First, the types and characteristics of juvenile criminals' social rehabilitation programs are divided into three stages, that is, pre-criminal judicial treatment stage, residential treatment stage, and community treatment stage. Most preceding studies are limited to discussing the residential treatment stage in juvenile reformatories or juvenile prisons and the social rehabilitation in probation offices. Beyond this limitation, this study discusses the social rehabilitation by adding pre-criminal judicial treatment stage, community service orders, attendance center orders, and juvenile protection institution entrustment. Through this point, this study focuses on the problem of juvenile criminals' smooth social rehabilitation and social readjustment which have been studied relatively incompletely in the meantime, and explores the substantial measures for supporting juvenile criminals' social rehabilitation.
Second, this study analyzes the actual conditions of juvenile criminals' social rehabilitation, and so identifies the stage of social rehabilitation model in Korea, and examines the social rehabilitation model which should be pursued through activating various social rehabilitation programs.
The results of this study can be summarized briefly as follows.
First, according to the results of analyzing the change trend of juvenile accidents during the past 10 years, juvenile criminals have increased continuously since 2005. Also, juvenile criminals' age has become younger, and rather than major crimes, the crimes of everyday life such as property crimes has increased. One of three juvenile criminals committed again crimes, and most of their accomplices were their friends, but their fellows in juvenile prisons were unexpectedly insignificantly small in the statistics.
Second, in the social rehabilitation process of pre-criminal judicial treatment stage, diversion program is used, but the diversion of the courts is not discussed in the Korean society in the present. The diversion of the prosecution is enacted, but the diversion of the police has been treated relatively negligently. Enacting the police diversion has the advantage that the police can contact juvenile accidents in the first place, and so terminate early judicial procedures, and then prevent juveniles from being labeled as criminals. And also can evoke juveniles' mistakes immediately rightly after the occurrence of accidents, and so increase the effect of interventions. However, there is yet no legal ground, so it is urgent to complement such legal ground.
Third, in the stage of residential treatment, this study examined the programs which are provided in juvenile prisons, juvenile reformatories, juvenile protection institutions (Protective Disposition No. 6), and juvenile medical protection institutions (Protective Disposition No. 7). First of all, in the programs of juvenile prisons and juvenile reformatories, parole/ provisional discharge system has little actual profit as a punishment, and so does not perform its original function. In furlough system, the practice criteria of adult prison inmates and juvenile prison inmates are identical, and so the systemic improvement is required. Also, it is necessary to enlarge actively the programs such as furlough, community service, and family meeting day. Next, in the programs of juvenile protection institutions (Protective Disposition No. 6), it is required to strengthen the specialty of education programs and acknowledge the academic career of juveniles under Protective Disposition No. 6. In order to activate the programs which are provided in juvenile medical protection institutions (Protective Disposition No. 7), it is required to establish the specialized treatment institutions and solve entrustment costs.
Fourth, in community treatment, the social rehabilitation programs include probation, community services, attendance center orders, and institution entrustment. Here, the manpower problem of probation officers and the problem of specialized programs can be pointed out. Also, for effective community protection, the deep understanding of nations and civil societies on juvenile criminals and the policy support of nations are certainly necessary.
In conclusion, various social rehabilitation programs are operated, but many problems are revealed in the aspects of efficiency and realizability. Specially, institution-based, protection(welfare)-based, and nation-based social rehabilitation programs are in contrast to community-based, protection(welfare)-based, and government & people cooperation-based advanced juvenile judicial system. For this reason, there occurs the structure of vicious cycle that one of three juvenile criminals commits again crimes. In consideration of this point, this study presents the following policy proposals for the efficient operation of social rehabilitation programs and the paradigm shift of juvenile judicial system.
First, it is necessary to institutionalize multi-agencies partnership. Second, it is necessary to introduce various correctional education programs. Third, it is necessary to operate specialist-based juvenile judicial system. Fourth, it is necessary to introduce restorative justice.
This study is composed of understanding the present state and characteristics of juvenile criminals' social rehabilitation programs, and analyzing juvenile criminals' social rehabilitation programs and so exploring the practice tasks for complementing their limitations. For this, this study composed the research content with the analysis perspective of critical consideration on juvenile criminals' social rehabilitation processes and programs. Here, juvenile criminals' social rehabilitation programs were made through analyzing literature data. Accordingly, this study used mainly the method of content analysis which collects and analyzes indirectly the data by already existing documents.
The scope of this study is to examine the change trend during the past 10 years on the criterion of Year 2008, in which formal governmental statistical documents can be obtained as of Year 2010. Therefore, the scope of this study is the period from Year 1999 to Year 2008. Only, the statistics in Year 2008 come into question. Because the statistics are drawn up with the criteria different with the past owing to the various changes such as the institutionalization of the prosecution diversion and the change of juvenile age by 'Juvenile Law' which was revised in December, 2007. the comparison is impossible. So, the scope of this study was set up to examine the change trend from Year 1999 to Year 2007 except Year 2008.