소년범죄자의 범죄중단에 관한 연구

This is a research of desistance of juvenile delinquents and causes of the desistance among 3,102 research participants who were detained at Korean Juvenile Classification Investigation Center in 1998. Prior criminal and confinement records of the adolescents were examined to identify their desistance of delinquency and the survey for the 83 adolescents was conducted and logistic regression analysis was completed to make an analysis of the causes of the desistance of delinquency. This is a empirically based and professional literature. Key points of the research are as follows;First, there may be three different types of delinquents; desisters(adolescent limited delinquents), life-course persisters, and potential persisters. Second, it was confirmed that “law of 6%”, which developmental criminologists have suggested, exists in Korea. Life-course persistent offenders whose individual crime rate is more than 0.5 of all recidivists was 207 adolescents(6.7%). Their frequency of confinement was 1,090, 35.6% of all confinements. It suggests that the government criminal policies for life-course persisters should be distinguished from the one for general offenders. Third, it was analyzed how the safety of family, workplace and peer relations have an effect on desistance of juvenile delinquency to identify the reason of the desistance. As a result of logistic regression analysis, only the positive change of peer relations influenced the desistance of delinquent behaviors. According to the logistic matrix, as the positive change of peer relations increases 1 unit, the possibility of the desistance increases 41.6%. It means, if peer relations become safer from peers to colleagues or if the frequency of peer relationships is decreased from 20 hours to 10 hours, the possibility of the desistance of delinquency is up to 41.6%. Parents attachment, spouse attachment, stable occupation were not statistically meaningful. The influence of peer associations was the most powerful factor for delinquency during adolescence. I suggest some policies on juvenile delinquency on the basis of the result of the research. First, “Prediction Table of Desisters” should be developed to identify 74.1% of adolescent limited delinquents. The studies of crime prediction have focused on “Prediction Table of Risk of Recidivism” to differentiate high risk offenders for criminal reoffending. But 74.1% of juvenile delinquents desisted crime in the early adulthood regardless of the frequency of criminal career. If the 74.1% of adolescence limited delinquents are noticed early, diversion can be delivered in the juvenile justice practices and prison effects from detention can be minimized. I expect that the development of evidence-based and structured prediction table of desistance opens a new era of juvenile crime prevention policies. Second, “Five Time Strike-Out System” may be suitable for 6.7% of life-course persistent offenders whose individual recidivism rate is more than 0.5%. All of them have more than five confinement careers before age of 31 and their number of confinement occupied 35.6% of all confinements. They are significantly more likely to commit a crime continuously. Therefore, selective incapacitation policy should be applied for them. If life-course persisters are imprisoned longer, community will be protected safely during their imprisonment. The career of more than five confinements is a criteria of the selective incapacitation policy. Third, positive correction interventions are required for 19.2% of potential persistent offenders. They are more likely to commit a crime, but they are not life-course persistent criminals. There has been a doubt about effectiveness of interventions for adolescent limited delinquents or life-course persisters. Adolescent limited delinquents desists a crime in the early adulthood without correction education programs and life-course persisters commit a crime repeatedly with correction programs. But the middle group of the two, 19.2% of potential persisters can desist a crime with effective interventions of rehabilitation education. These offenders are the target group of correction. Correctional education programs should include a more cognitive behavior treatment programs because most delinquents commit an offense impulsively, not habitually. For juvenile delinquents who are suffering from family problems and peer relationships, the most important is a job training which can give them an ability of dealing with their own life independently. Job is the strongest motivation of getting them out of the circle of crime. Relating to the cause of desistance of crime, the most important is to change peer relations. The most significant factor of the desistance of crime was the alteration of peer associations as it found in this research. We should change delinquents' peer relations from negative peers with delinquency to positive peers with conventions. Therefore, it is an imminent issue in juvenile crime prevention policies to make an environment and programs for the youths to break off with negative peers. Finally, I suggest the limits of this research and the direction of future research as follows;Only 83 adolescents were conducted the survey in this research. It isn't enough to represent all 3,102 delinquents. The survey of 48 persisters is sufficient to represent all crime persisters. But the survey of 35 desisters is insufficient to represent all crime desisters. It was very difficult to conduct the survey to the desisters because they are scattered all over the nation wide regions. Thus, it is needed to conduct an additional survey to desisters and continue to do follow-up studies. It is longitudinal data that used in this research such as confinement records and examinations of living environment for 12 years. I limited this study to identify the reasons of delinquency desistance with differentiating delinquents into three different types and comparing them. It is required to discuss persistence and transition of juvenile delinquency and to continue to study the delinquent pathways of adolescents in the future.