소년범에 대한 형벌 부과의 문제점 및 개선방안

As the juveniles are characterized by the fact that they get involved in crime or get out of the crime more easily than adults. In case of the juveniles, the possibility of the recovery from the criminal acts and re-socialization is higher than that of adults, the criminal judicial system shall take into account them and the system which is imposed on the adult shall not be applied to the juveniles as it is. It means that the protectional disposition should be first applied to the juveniles reflecting the principle of parens patriae and the education ideology as they need the disciplinary system different from that for adults. The general judicial system shall be applied to the juveniles in exceptional cases only, in which case, the criminal disposition shall be imposed in a softer method. Reflecting these characteristics, the Juvenile Act specifies the special cases for the juvenile crime considering their individualistic and environmental characteristics such as prohibition of death penalty and life sentence, sentencing of relative indeterminate sentence, prohibition of detention in labor house, possible reduction of the sentencing and reduced requirements for parole, etc for the juvenile criminal unde the age of 18. Here, there are the needs for closely checking if the special provisions in the criminal dispositions specified in the Juvenile Act, which were designed in compliance with the characteristics of juvenile criminals can be properly applicable under current situation or if not, what kinds of provisions should be improved. It is because although the Juvenile Act which was established in 1958 has been improved in a more advanced way through several revisions, there are still the provisions which are not proper or does not reflect the characteristics of juvenile criminal from the viewpoint of the general juvenile criminal laws. Therefore, this study would segment the punishment system against the juvenile criminals into amercement system, imprisonment system and death penalty system, check each of them and analyze the problems of each of them before reasonably suggesting the method for improvements.