(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Roughly 3 in 4 law breaching minors turned out to have spearheaded criminal activities in groups, and unlike the common perception that they are no more than petty thieves, the seriousness of their crimes is more severe than one might expect, a study showed Thursday.
Lee Jang-wook, a police science professor of Ulsan University, conducted a study on first-instance court rulings for 103 cases of theft committed between 2017 and last year by teenage felons, 73.8 percent of which turned out to be spearheaded by minors.
The success rate of crimes spearheaded by juvenile offenders stood at 85.5 percent, exceeding the success rate of crimes in which the minors took a secondary role (81.4 percent).
“The fact that minors take charge in committing the majority of these crimes indicates that they are trying to exploit the legal system in which they are exempt from criminal punishment,” Lee said.
Among cases of theft committed by minors, 23.3 percent involved damages of 1-10 million won (US$700-7,000), while 4.8 percent involved damages of 10-100 million won.
Between 2019 and 2020, the cases of theft that exceeded 1 million won in damages accounted for around 10 percent of all theft cases. Only 1 percent involved more than 10 million won in damages.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
