과실범의 가중처벌에 관한 일고찰- 특가법상 어린이 보호구역에서 어린이 치사상의 가중처벌을 중심으로 -

Accidents in children protection zones(so called school zone) have been newly regulated in the ‘Act on The Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes’ (hereinafter referred to as the Special Aggravation Act). This article, also known as the ‘Law for Min-sik’ can be considered to has been newly established to protect children from traffic accidents by expanding the duty of care of drivers in children protection zones. However, in the case of an accident causing death of a child in children protection zones leads to imprisonment for life or more than 3 years in prison, and injuries to a child lead to imprisonment for not less than 1 year and not more than 15 years. These sentences are considerably high when compared to any negligence criminal under the Criminal Law, and not low even compared to various provisions under the Special Aggravation Act. Therefore, the duty of care in this article needs to be subdivided. In the case of excessive violation of the duty of care, such as a violation of the traffic signal or speed limits, it is deemed reasonable to punish as in the current article but it is needed to lower the sentences in case of minor violation. And in judging such a duty of care, the citizen participation trial system is expected to be one of the reasonable solutions. In other words, the adequacy of the current aggravated punishment requires a strict review, even considering that it is an accident in children protection zones, and basically most accidents are negligence. And the balance with other crimes, especially the similar sentences with other crimes, which can be evaluated more illegal under the Special Aggravation Act, clearly has room for improvement. Considering that this article is the only negligent criminal under the Special Aggravation Act, it is considered reasonable to be stipulated in the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents.