형사미성년자의 연령 인하 문제를 위한 제언

A bill lowering the minimum age of criminal liability for a child offender from 14to 12 years of age has been filed at the House of Representatives by a right wing Congressman. The Korean Juvenile Law was already revised because of cruel juvenile crimes by younger juveniles in December 2007. The reformed Juvenile Law has been early treating and intervening in the younger juveniles. However, this motion just emphasizes on protecting the children who are 10 to 13 years old, at the committing crime. Korean Criminal Law cannot punish the children and cannot protect the victims without lowering the minimum age of criminal liability for a child offender. Even, exempting the age brackets of 10 - 14 from criminal liability could be used by unscrupulous minds to justify the offenders’ criminal acts. Nevertheless, there is scarce researching on the minimum age of criminal liability. Furthermore, there is hardly research on the British and American minimum age of criminal liability in South Korea. The common law has been developed about the minimum age of criminal liability through precedent cases in the United States of America. What can South Korea learn from the common law about minimum age of criminal liability?Is it really right that the Korean Criminal Law would be revised for lowering the juvenile age requirement of the criminal responsibility from under 14 to under 12?These are this thesis' purpose.