1. Introduction
The crime rate among teenagers in Korea is soaring nowadays. According to Korean Institute of Criminology(KIC), the number of teenagers who had committed crime has increased from 72,770 to 91,633 in ten years(2004~2013). Since Korean society compels teenagers to behave well and study hard all the time, juvenile delinquents have been treated as not only the trouble makers but also the 'social outcasts'. Below are some of the stereotypes against juvenile delinquents.
Juvenile delinquents have low level of education and financial status
Juvenile delinquents are impulsive and can not control their emotions effectively
The family background of juvenile delinquents must be unfortunate
Juvenile delinquents are not serious about their lives and not responsible to their behaviors
Juvenile delinquents are likely to commit crimes again if they grow up
Juvenile delinquents look dangerous and threatening
From these stereotypes, it can be inferred that juvenile delinquents are highly stigmatized. These stereotypes are the dominant stories about juvenile delinquents in our society. As the single story frequently hinders the truth to be revealed, our group found it necessary to challenge these stereotypes and look out for more stories. That is why our group has chosen juvenile delinquent in Korea as the subculture for the ethnography project.
To start with, the definition of juvenile delinquents should be established. In our ethnography project, juvenile delinquents are the ones whose age is higher than 13 and lower than 19 and who have been to Juvenile Hall at least for one time.
2. Plan for the Ethnography Project
Our group is going to conduct four interviews. Two of the interviewees are juvenile delinquents and as sex might be one of the factors to determine different attitude towards juvenile delinquents, our group decided to interview both female and male. To expand the view towards juvenile delinquents and hear more stories from different perspective, our group will also interview the police who serves for Kwan-ak district of which crime rate is one of the highest in Seoul and the faculty member of An-yang Juvenile Hall.
For the project, our group is going to meet on 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday in Gwan Jung study room nearly every week.
3. Preliminary Research
3.1 Korean Society views Juvenile Delinquents with Cold Eyes
In this article, typical stereotypes against juvenile delinquents are shown. The writer views juvenile delinquents as thoughtless trouble makers who do not regard their crime seriously. In addition, the writer insists that the punishment for juvenile delinquency should be more stern as 'easily forgiving' juvenile delinquents make them commit the crime again.
3.2 Family, the cause of juvenile delinquency?
In this article, the writer emphasizes on juvenile delinquents having a dark family atmosphere by giving out some example of them. The
article also shows the importance of education not only to the juvenile delinquent him/herself but also to their close family.
3.3 What are juvenile delinquents like in the facility?
The video is about a famous TV show host, Paek ji-yeon visiting juvenile hall to see for herself what life in the facility is like. She interviews juvenile delinquents and finds out that what these teenagers need is really just attention, instead of punishment.
Transcript of the video:
Teenage crime is increasing and becoming
more serious as ever. 1 out of 50 teenagers are committing crime. Over 5 years,
teenage crime has increased up to twice as much as before.
Teenage crime isn’t only limited to
school’s problem, but it’s spreading as society problem.
This is a place where problematic
teenagers, also known as juvenile delinquents live and gather.
This is the only place in Korea where 99
girl juvenile delinquents live. For what reason do these girls had to come to
this juvenile hall?
This is Jeong-sim girls information
industrial school. It caught my attention.
Isn’t the school a little bit unexpected?
Probably because a lot of people still
remember the school as juvenile hall.
It is because the students are still
sensitive and need education just like other normal students. That’s why the
juvenile hall’s name changed to school.
Let's see around the school and talk.
Sure.
We do not know much about the school. Why
don't we go on and meet the students?
The students are very excited to meet you
as well.
My first impression of Anyang juvenile
hall, also known as Jeong-shim girls information industrial school wasn't much
different from that of other normal schools. Even some facilities were better
than other schools. There are up to 1 to 10 juvenile adjudication according to
how serious the crime was. Around 12 to 19 years old girls come to this school,
and they can stay here up to 2 years maximum. The only juvenile hall that has
long term service time.
This is an office, and the one behind that
is where students live and study.
There are metal fences.
Yes, it is because the government claimed
this area as detention facility. Due to that, we need at the very least
security in order to keep the students inside the facility.
So that means that the students aren't
allowed to go out on their will.
Yes, of course. There are special occasions
where students are allowed to go outside, such as going on a field trip, or
participating in a cultural experience.
The only difference that I could see is
that there are metal fences.
The reason that these students came to this
facility vary from violence to theft. These teenagers are examined by
prosecution, inspected by police and go through trial.
These kids don't even feel sorry. Where did
you spend the money? Did you bully weaker students? They aren't different from
gangsters. They will keep bullying other students as they grow up. The core
problem of school violence is right here.
Age averages from 16 to 18 and most of them
spend here for about an year. Because of the metal fences, they are separated
from the society, but it isn't much different from other normal schools inside.
What situation led those students to here?
Hello. There are different kinds of socks.
Do they give out same socks? I was shocked. The facilities in here are so clean
and well organized. Who do you miss the most?
Mom! Grandma! Sister! Dad!
Do you like your dad the best?
yes
Do you communicate well with your dad?
yes
How long have you been here?
More than an year.
How is life in here?
It's hard. You have to wake up early,
around 6 30 a.m. Isn't it really fresh waking up early?
Because it's surrounded by mountains here,
the air is really fresh.
Then when do you sleep?
We sleep around at 9 P.M.
Wow, you guys sleep early.
Why don't we have a time of confession. How
come you came to this facility?
I hung out with my friends, and ran away
from home. From then on, I put my hands on sniffing glue and that's what made
me come here.
When did you first commit a misdeed?
I ran away from home when I was sixth grade
in elementary school, and started to sniff glue.
Why did you run away from home?
I just didn't like home back then.
Even when your parents were being good to
you?
My parents are divorced and my mom and dad
don't live together.
So you don't like your home?
I liked my dad, but I didn't like my home.
Weren't you scared? I mean, once you ran
away, you can't go back.
It wasn't like I was determined to run away
at first. I hung out with my friends until late, which made me reluctant to go
home. That's how I ran away from home.
Was it fun hanging out with your friends?
What do you do?
Just hanging out with them was fun.
Where did you guys hang out?
When it's warm outside, we went to park.
When it's cold outside, we went to friend's house.
Don't their parents worry about you?
They don't really ask much about us,
because those parents work outside for very long.
Wasn't it convenient since parents didn't
have time to care about you guys?
Yes, we didn't want attention.
How did your first running away from home
turn out?
At first, my dad hit me for no reason
because he was drunk. That's why I ran away from home so that I wouldn't be
hit. From then on, I began to not like home.
How about you? How did you come to this
facility?
I came because of blackmailing. I took away
classmates' money and hit them. I acted how my close friends acted toward
classmates.
Adults say that whoever you are with makes
whoever you are. Do you agree?
Yes, I agree with that saying.
Was it fun when you were doing it?
After doing it, I was really scared and
guilty. I thought this would be my last chance because I already went to
juvenile hall.
So this is your second time serving. Then
why did you come here first time?
I was guilty of violence and violation of
traffic laws.
How?
I drove a car.
When did you drive??
I drove my friend's dad's car when I was
15. I did this out of curiosity and fun. Before then, I was interested in
driving. There was an accident in the highway. On my way to kangwon province
from Kyeongi province, I was driving in 140kmh. When I was trying to change the
traffic lane, one of my friends told me that we were about to hit guardrail.
That made me frustrated and the handle went out of my control. From what I
remember, car span around.
Weren't you hurt?
No. Nobody got hurt.
Then did you serve time here? or somewhere
else?
I stayed here the first time, too. There
were 2 years of probation period, but I committed blackmailing after the period
was over. That's why I was sentenced to juvenile adjudication number 10.
Weren't you determined that you wouldn't
come back to this facility the first time you got out?
Of course, I was determined.
Then what was the reason?
Being out of the facility made me carefree
and lighthearted. That's probably why I came back to this facility.
Then what should we do to so that you stay in
the right path?
Back then, I lived apart from my family
with my friends. Hanging out with my friends again made me commit crime again.
How did it feel like when you came back to
the facility again?
This is the end of my life. I have no hope.
This was how I thought when I came back to the facility.
How do you feel now, after spending an year
here in this facility?
I feel good. I don't regret coming into
this facility.
Then how were your behaviors at first?
I didn't regret my wrongdoings. In my
diary, I wrote how I was so innocent and didn't deserve juvenile adjudication
number 10.
Then whose fault was it?
I blamed my friends, and the police officer
who caught me. However, my facility teacher told me that I was wrong and I
should reflect on my behavior once again. From then on, I feel like I changed.
Teenagers didn't need spanking. What they
really needed was love and attention.
As you might all know, ages that commit
crime are becoming lower and lower by every year. What do you think the reason
could be?
Because the teenagers can see those crimes.
So you mean, they learn those crimes by
actually witnessing those crimes. They learn it from the media and the
internet, am I correct?
What they learn from school takes big part
in committing crime, especially from upper classmen. For example, when upper
classmen take away my money through force, I naturally seek for under classmen
so that I could take their money as well.
Nowadays, I think that the students have
nothing to fear.
Then what do you suggest that we should do
stop these teenagers from committing these wrongdoings?
I guess the best way is to make them avoid
such occasions. The first is the most important of all. Once you get into such
wrongdoings, you can't get out of it.
So that means there should be punishment
right away?
There are certain limits to punishment.
Instead, you should make those teenagers reflect on their behavior. If you
punish them, you can make them become more defiant. There needs to be someone
who can hold that teenager so that he/she can stay on the right path. The most
important factor is family environment. Based on my experience, I remember my
dad hitting me when he was drunk. The most surprising thing is that I act the
same as my dad. Unconsciously I learned and started copying what my dad used to
do to me.
However, the family environment isn't
something that we could choose when we are born. Then what should the society,
or the government do about these problems?
What we need is attention.
Maybe finding a way to ask for help?
We do ask for help, but they don't really
help us.
Even in school?
Yes.
To sum up, when you guys were doing
wrongdoings, there were voices inside your head that said "please help
me", isn't that right?
Yes.
But you are saying that there weren't places
where you could ask for help?
Yes.
I read your intro & preliminary research interestingly. And I want to make some comments on it.
답글삭제1. First of all, when I saw some of the stereotypes against juvenile delinquents, I also agreed with these stereotypes are prevalent in our society. No matter what kinds of crime they committed, it seems to me that people tend to have such stereotypes.
2. I have already read your group's interview synopses and noticed that interviewees were different from an original plan, maybe due to difficult situation to conduct an interview with a female interviewee or police officer in Kwan-ak district. But still, your group's interview synopses are well-organized enough in terms of conveying the reality of juvenile delinquents.
3. Lastly, I was a little dubious about your summary of the first article in preliminary research. I don't think there are typical stereotypes agianst juvenile delinquents in the article, because what the writer have written is not only based on the actual incidents of the serial rape and interviews from police or experts, but also limited to the young rapists. In fact, I agree with the argument of this article that sexual crime committed by teenagers is a great, social problem and the punishment for juvenile delinquency in regard of sexual violence should be more toughened. The content of this article is really shocking and truly unimaginable for me.
Your introduction to your research is very interesting, personally and especially about the topic 'juvenile delinquent'. But I am also curious about the progress of finding someone who are(were) juvenile delinquent(s) and the faculty member of An-yang Juvenile hall. I hope you guys explain it clearly when you do presentation in class. And, I am also doubtful about the reason why you decided to choose a policeman of Kwan-ak district just with the fact that the region has the one of the highest crime rate, because general crime rate doesn't represent the crime rate of juvenile delinquency.
답글삭제The preliminary researches including news article summaries well correspond to the stereotypes you've mentioned above. Most stereotypes you've written are exactly the ones I have had. But I am still confused with the statistical facts about juvenile delinquency with the stereotypes about them. Don't the factors you've said as stereotypes have somewhat significant relation with real statistics? (Actually, this dubiety is due to my confusion not having clear boundary between real facts and stereotypes).
The video clip was very intriguing enough. I've never heard stories about juvenile delinquents even indirectly. I realized that they can be common teenagers like we were, not monsters or absolute trouble makers. Though, through one of the stories from a girl from a divorced family in the video clip, my stereotype that 'the family background of juvenile delinquent is unfortunate' has been strengthened to some extent.
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답글삭제Oh... It's so hard to see this final Youtube clip without tears. It makes me recall last May. I was doing Teaching Practice then, and met a lot of middle school students. That school had many students who are varied in economical, parental, educational, and many more ways. I saw some students who are suffering from their environments such as their parent's problem or complicated relationships among friends. And it was so easy to realize that all they needed was our 'attention'. It was not love or special treatment that they really needed, but it was literally 'attention' from people around them. In this video, the girls tell us the exactly same thing. That reminded me of my students whom I met in Teaching Practice period. When our younger generations get our attention, things would probably change. As a university student majoring in Education, 'Juvenile Delinquent' is a serious and important subject to me. Thanks for your work! :)
답글삭제Actually, 'Juvenile delinquenct' is interesting topic to me, because in my childhood, I saw many of them, and had indirectly experienced teenage crime. As you mentioned in the post, I think juvenile delinquent is mainly happend because of the adult too. In the case of a sex crime, adult-made pornography is spreading easily throughout the teenagers. And, media show the lewd information easily. Above all thing, physical abuse by adult, and indifference to teenagers are causing them feel lonely and make them easy to commit a crime.
답글삭제In my middle school, there was several teenage crime happend in our school. Some of them had stolen the motorcycle in the theater, some of them assult the university student to extort some money. Many of my friend sniff glue in the school bathroom, and they sexually abuse their classmate like hitting her hip or try to take of her skirt. Because our school was in the middle of the 'poor country', so many parents are indifference to their child. Also, stores near our school was managed by old man, so they hadn't supervise them for buying soju or cigarette. In this bad environment, many of my friends had no interest or love, so they ddin't know that their behaviour is crime, and eventhough they knew that they're committing a crime, they didn't feel any guilty.
According to my real experience with juvenile delinquence, I think this article is well organized, and shows the situation well. Also, I love that last video clip which shows the another side of the juvenile criminal.
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답글삭제First of all, I loved how you started and organized the introduction with the stereotypes. But in the preliminary research, I agreed with Mingyu's opinion in that the first article doesn't really fit the main stream discussing how people have stereotypes about juvenile delinquents. I personally think that though there might be stereotypes about juvenile rapists, special measures should be made to stop their problem-making. Otherwise, the other article and video really supported your point; I could see how reporters used statistics without listening to many stories and made over-generalizations about juvenile delinquents.
답글삭제Anyways, the first article made me think about different measures and labels that should be given according to different crime. For example, I am very sensitive to things like rape; 'sex workers' is our team's topic; so I kept imaging different kind of people when the article mentioned young rapists. Thanks to your blog posts I understood how people could have false stereotypes on general juvenile delinquents while I couldn't help thinking that young rapists should never be forgiven because no matter what stories, they have given big injuries to victims. Same with crimes like murder or violence; I thought there could be different stereotypes according to crime.
I am interested in your Intro and preliminary research because of my major. My major is social studies education, so I took a lot of classes about juvenile problems. I think your approaches are very elaborate and also diverse interviewees will be helpful to understand from multiple angles.
답글삭제However, I was curious for your stereotypes because several stereotypes you mentioned could be 'true'. I learned that juvenile delinquents have low level of education, low level of self esteem, and low level of support from family, so your premises that you have to defute can be come out to be true. I recommend your team brings to a focus on the future things about juvenile delinquents more not background. It will be more helpful to change our negative stereotypes about their possibility of correction.
And also, I visited An-Yang juvenile hall last year actually, and I was shocked because there was not like a prison and facilities were very good. The teenagers in there were also common just with other ordinary teenagers. I think you can show us our stereotypes about juvenile delinquents hall and the life in there, because we have some stereotypes about those things.
It was shocking to read about the reality of child crimes in South Korea. You hear about such crimes on the news, but its not until you begin to take interest and research the topic that you begin to grasp the truly shocking nature of the issue.
답글삭제The sheer number of child crimes, and the ridiculous nature of the context in which they are committed is frustrating to say the least. The increasing trend of these crimes is definitely a problem for our society. It is problem intertwined with various causes originating from the household, education system and our lack of interest. Therefore, any solution to the issue needs to target the various causes in a complete and comprehensive manner.
I agree with your idea that one of the typical stereotypes against juvenile delinquents is negative assumption of their family backgrounds. And even from your researches and interviews, that stereotype is quite reliable because the people whose jobs are related to them are saying most juvenile deliquents have negative family backgrounds and even the cause and the way to solve the problem importantly depend on how their parents act.
답글삭제The crime of serial rapes of a girl done by boys in South Korea shocked me because the crime was done just in the classroom even at noon and just after the class, and the criminals and victims are classmates in the same class; which means the children in the school are always exposed to potential risk of becoming victims.
And as the experts in the newspaper say, pornographic movies which can be downloaded so easily by everyone through the web sites can influence children to get biased image of the other sex.
And for the facilities of the juvenile hall, I personally think the facilities don't need to be too good considering the issue of financial problems in that the money invested to the hall is from the citizen's taxes. Instead, the thing needed to be improved is not the facility but the care and emotional communication between the teacher and the juvenile delinquents which include the education after they come out of the juvenile hall.
I realized that the family environment is very critical to juvenile deliquents. In this sense, I totally agree with that not only them but aslo thier families need some kind of education. I haven't known that there are also such programs for their families. The trend of lowering age of juevenile deliquents is very tragic to our society. I believe that all we are blamed to their wrongdoings. It may be kind of stereotypes but as we have seen in the youtube clips, some of them have been suffering from bad conditions in the home. Our society need to pay attention to them who are marginalized form our sights. Attention is better than punishment. To punish is no more than stopgap measure I think. It is certainly needed, however what we have to do is to grow them as a sound member of our society. This is the reason why I think switching the name of a juevenial hall to a industrial school is a good choice.
답글삭제It's impressing that you started with a statistic. The dramatical increase of the number of teenagers who had committed crime from 2004 to 2013 is quite amazing. But at first, I doubted whether it was caused by a natural increase of population. So I begun to find some statistical data to prove it. Finally, I found one, but it was not accordant with what I thought. The number of birth was dramatically decreased from 1990 to 1999, and so on. It's surprising the fact that despite this datum, the number of juvenile criminal increases.
답글삭제Your reasearch contains interesting arguments, and some of it gave me a pleasant surprise. Yet, the stereotypes you mentioned in introduction seems rather awkward. I guess that you must at leat show the background why these stereotypes are widespread.Without these kind of justification, stereotypes you mentioned cannot be shared with others.
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