1.Interviewee ‘Mr. Kim’ interviewed by Jae Won
Our interviewee,
Mr. Kim, is a male policeman who works for a police station in Gyeonggi-do,
Hwaseong-si. He started working here about 5 years ago when the city was just
in a developing phase. There are lots of schools near this police station so he
had plenty of chances to take care of juvenile delinquents who we planned to
interview about.
Before
they are investigated in the Police Station.
He explained that there
are many routes of visiting the station. Sometimes the school requests for an
investigation of a student, or a citizen notifies the police about juvenile
delinquents committing a crime. Mostly, the crimes are shop lifting, violence,
or illegal drinking and driving. Bigger crimes are sexual harassment, arson,
and murder. But he has never seen these kind of crimes.
From Mr. Kim’s
experience, these delinquents usually had a negative environment in their
family. There were some single parents who got divorced. When the parents are
summoned to the station, lots of them fight. But Mr. Kim said that the juveniles are usually
very close to their friends. All the young delinquents he saw were in a group
of two or more.
Investigating
in the Police Station.
He said that the
policemen including him are taught to treat the young and adult differently. The
object of investigating juvenile delinquents is not only knowing the incident,
which is the main role of a policeman, but has to help them adjust well to the
society too. So the juvenile delinquents usually have a social worker who could
help them in this field. He thinks when the teenagers are in the police station
getting investigated, they are usually scared. He said the reason was that
police men can’t be too kind because their main role is to know what crime
they did. So when the young delinquents talk to the social workers, many of
them cry and talk freely about what they are going through. He also said, but
sometimes the delinquents seem to have no thought of being sorry.
After
the Investigation.
When the
investigating is done, the police decide if the delinquent has to be sent to a
juvenile court, or punish them differently other than using the justice system.
But because the crime is usually not too big, Mr. Kim would lecture about
discipline and warn the young delinquents. Then they reach an agreement with
the victim. But the ones who doesn’t regret at all of his behavior or committed
a big crime has to be sent to a juvenile court.
After
Getting Out of the Police Station.
When the juvenile
delinquents are out of the station, he and other policemen don’t contact them.
But the social worker who worked together stays alert to the teenager to help
or prevent another crime. Even when the teenager gets put into a juvenile hall.
What
the Interviewee Thinks About Juvenile Delinquents.
Mr. Kim once had a
middle school second grade delinquent who would drink alcohol, drive a
motorcycle and just wander around the city picking on young people. When this
kid was put into the police station, he didn’t think of it as a big deal. When
this student was released from the station, he would come back with a similar
crime few days later. Mr. Kim said he thought this kid would never change. But,
about a year of helping problems in their family and school, he started to
regret what he has done. Mr. Kim was surprised at first but he started to feel
sorry to the victims. From this, Mr. Kim understood why juvenile delinquents
needed help.
‘I
want people to know with enough care and guide, young kids have the mind to
adjust good to the society’
He talked about how life was like in the detention center. The interesting part was that the detention center in Korea is just like military. It was a place where existed order of power between teenagers, and the difference in power made the teenagers act accordingly just like military. Since there weren't any schedules besides meal and exercise, life in the facility was lethargic and restricted. He felt that he was being controlled and looked upon because of the CCTVs. He felt that he was actually in the detention center at the first day of the center, because the life in the facility was totally different from what was like only few hours ago outside the facility.
Relationships in Detention center
There were basically two types of relationships. The first one is one-time short relationship where they do not keep in touch after they served their time in the facility. It was the situation that made them live altogether, it wasn't something of their choice. Also, it's basically like a military, so there aren't much chances where you can become friends with one another. However, there is another type of relationship. Those who try to keep in touch after their service most likely want to work in such dark area. They want to join a gang and make friends in the facility in order to ask for help when joining a gang. He also thought that teenagers who committed crimes and came to facility were cool, but now he thinks that they weren't just mature enough and wasn't "cool".
Life after serving time in the facility
He said that he got used to the facility life, where violence, both verbally and physically happened often. Naturally when he served his time and came back to society, people, especially friends around him felt that he became violent and stormy. It made people around him feel awkward toward him. It was similar for the parents as well. On the other hand, he felt guilty and very sorry for his parents and his friends because he felt that there were imaginary stigma that followed him everywhere he went. In order to forget about the past, he tries his best to learn mechanics and hopes to find his career in the field of technology because he thinks that it's too late to go back to high school and finish his study.
Thoughts about crime
He really regretted having done such a crime, but at the same time, he doesn't regret or blame anyone else because he thinks that he had learned a lot from the experience. If he could, he wants to reverse the time and correct all his actions. If he can travel time, he wants to go back when he was a normal student and study as hard as possible because he dreamed of becoming a policemen.
2. Hoon - Interviewed by Okchul Jung
The interviewee, Hoon is 20 years old and he was in the detention center when he was 17 years old. He committed special rape and served for the detention center for one year and a half.
Life in juvenile hall
Life in juvenile hall
He talked about how life was like in the detention center. The interesting part was that the detention center in Korea is just like military. It was a place where existed order of power between teenagers, and the difference in power made the teenagers act accordingly just like military. Since there weren't any schedules besides meal and exercise, life in the facility was lethargic and restricted. He felt that he was being controlled and looked upon because of the CCTVs. He felt that he was actually in the detention center at the first day of the center, because the life in the facility was totally different from what was like only few hours ago outside the facility.
Relationships in Detention center
There were basically two types of relationships. The first one is one-time short relationship where they do not keep in touch after they served their time in the facility. It was the situation that made them live altogether, it wasn't something of their choice. Also, it's basically like a military, so there aren't much chances where you can become friends with one another. However, there is another type of relationship. Those who try to keep in touch after their service most likely want to work in such dark area. They want to join a gang and make friends in the facility in order to ask for help when joining a gang. He also thought that teenagers who committed crimes and came to facility were cool, but now he thinks that they weren't just mature enough and wasn't "cool".
Life after serving time in the facility
He said that he got used to the facility life, where violence, both verbally and physically happened often. Naturally when he served his time and came back to society, people, especially friends around him felt that he became violent and stormy. It made people around him feel awkward toward him. It was similar for the parents as well. On the other hand, he felt guilty and very sorry for his parents and his friends because he felt that there were imaginary stigma that followed him everywhere he went. In order to forget about the past, he tries his best to learn mechanics and hopes to find his career in the field of technology because he thinks that it's too late to go back to high school and finish his study.
Thoughts about crime
He really regretted having done such a crime, but at the same time, he doesn't regret or blame anyone else because he thinks that he had learned a lot from the experience. If he could, he wants to reverse the time and correct all his actions. If he can travel time, he wants to go back when he was a normal student and study as hard as possible because he dreamed of becoming a policemen.
3. Interviewee Ms. Park interviewed by Seung Yeon
Ms. Park is the
school counselor who works for the center called ‘Wee center’. ‘Wee center’ is
the center that deals with students who are maladaptive in schools of Seung-Beuk
dong. Ms. Park has worked as a teacher for more than 20 years and been
dispatched as a school counselor of ‘Wee center’ this year to learn more about
maladaptive students.
Before
being sent to the detention center
According to Ms. Park, the juvenile delinquents tend to be abandoned
by their parents due to economic burdens. Most of the parents of juvenile
delinquents have low socio-economic status and be forced to work all day. The
parents of juvenile delinquents cannot afford to let their children study in private
education institutes or spend time productively. Therefore, a lot of juvenile
delinquents tend to get along with the gangs and commit crimes as they do have
nothing to do and their lives seem so tedious. In addition, the students who commit
crime tend to decide things on impulse and rely on their friends a lot even
more than their parents.
The relationship between
juvenile delinquents and their parents
Most of the parents of
juvenile delinquents are divorced or passed away. There are two types of
parents of juvenile delinquents. The first type is the parents who are too
strict to their children. The children of this type of parents are exposed to
domestic violence a lot. The second type is the parents who are too permissive
to their kids. They let their kids do whatever their kids want since they
cannot allocate much energy into their children as they are too busy with their
work. When those parents get to know that their kids have committed crime, a
lot of parents tend to abandon their kids and do not care about their kids.
After coming back from the
detention center
There is a strong need for taking
holistic approach towards juvenile delinquents but as the budget is limited, the
consulting is done for not their parents or teachers but only for juvenile
delinquents. In addition, the teachers need to do so much administrative work
and there are too many students in one class. Therefore, there is little chance
for juvenile delinquents to get proper attention. Furthermore, the schools do
not introduce future plan rather than university entrance and many juvenile
delinquents who are not good at studying feel isolated and helpless.
Your interview synopses are absolutely intriguing, and I want to make a few comments on them.
답글삭제1. It seems to me that parent's attitude toward their children is greatly influnetial and might be a possible reason for teenagers being juvenile delinquents, as both Mr.Kim and Ms. Park gave some solid evidence in the interview. I think this is a really important point. It implies that our society should not only teach and lead teenagers not to commit a crime, but also inform their parents the importance of perspective and treatments in home. I agree with the necessitiy of holistic approach, as Ms. Park said, but I think it should be highligted as a key issue first by the press to obtain enough budgets, which would probably be challenging.
2. I was surprised that there is a order of power, or hierarchy in the detention center. The interviewee said that it's like a military, which is meant to be a very strict and oppresive for me. I think social workers and counselors for juvenile delinquents in the detention center should maintain careful guidance even after they served time in the facility so that they can restart their life.
3. Reading Mr Kim's interview, I'm sorry to say but, I feel a bit of officialism. Maybe that's because he emphasizes the role of policemen is to investigate and figure out the exact situation of crime. Granted, it is important, but I think communicating and educating these juvenile delinquents to change their mind is more pivotal. Well, maybe I'm too idealistic.
1. I also thought that people never change and it's almost impossible to change people like delinquent juveniles, but it turned out that i'm wrong. It's good that they made up their mind to live along with others and fit themselves for the society. I hope everybody would be sorry that he or she has made, can adjust themselves to the society and be well-harmonized into society.
답글삭제2. It's my first time to read about detention center, and it is quite shocking that the center did not try their best to correct delinquent juveniles. I mean, what is the purpose of that facility? It seems that the center doesn't care about what the inmates do. Thus, they make their orders btw them and try to be the king among them. It was great that the interviewee repented.
3. Two types of relationship- one time, short relationship and long-term relationship. These were what I expected. Unfortunately, the second one should be corrected as long-term relationship "to join in a gangster club." Maybe they are the people who fit in my stereotype that people never change? I hope they also could be changed.
1. Through these 3 interviews, I could find one in common. Many(or Most) Juvenile Delinquents might struggle from the home environment such as their parents' bad behavior or economic difficulty.
답글삭제2. There is a sentence like this in the second interview. "It's basically like a military, so there aren't much chances where you can become friends with one another." But I'm afraid that it also contains a stereotype. I have a lot of nice relationships with my comrades whom I met during my military service in Air Force. We still have special brothership because we put up with hard time together and it's so sustainable. :)
3. By the educational view, extreme style of education is always bad. For example, 3rd interviewee told that there are two types of parents of juvenile delinquents. Very strict or very permissive. Those two kinds are both harmful to children's future. Balancing those factors would be very important to raise children.
Thanks for your works!
It's not a comment, but just my opinion about crime. Your post is awsome, and encouraging me to think about this issue. But in English, it's too hard to show my deep opinion.
답글삭제I think that in Korea, a lot of criminals escape punishment just because they are under 18 and their crime is not too severe, as it is said above, 'because the crime is usually not too big, Mr. Kim would lecture about discipline and warn the young delinquents. Then they reach an agreement with the victim.' But I doubt whether they indeed do a deep regret. According to my personal experiences in schools, a real baddies deceived adults such as teachers, parents or police officers by such a nice acting as if they really regretted what they did. However, once they escaped those situations, they went back to devils.
I do not insist that all the juvenile delinquents should be considered like it. What I want to say is that they should be punished if they committed crime. Being juvenile isn't an indulgence. It is not only a problem of society and family, but also of an individual.
But I also agree with that the society is too blaming people who have committed crime. A tendency to stigmatize them as evil just because they have been a jail once or twice is to be rejected.
I learned a lot from these three articles!! First of all, the second interview was interesting because the interviewee felt sorry and made an effort to recover his life in order to overcome stereotypes. I thought in this case, the stereotypes did good for his life. Also, I liked where the interviewee said 'it wasn't cool, it was just not being mature', because I remember thinking that the bullies or the 'cool' gangs in middle school were cool. I had been bullied by them a bit, but never have thought they were not mature nor they should be punished. Instead, I remember feeling very angry about them and wanting to exceed their fighting and talking skills to make myself 'cool', too. This is why I agreed with another idea in this blog post; that juvenile delinquents shouldn't be punished harshly, they should be loved. I'm not saying that I could have been suddenly violent to follow the gangs, but I thought that other students could have felt the same as I did, and if they were taken with love and care after being bullied, they would not have thought to put a revenge to others. I also recall our schools' bullies going to wee class often and returning with happy faces after going through several programs.
답글삭제So I agreed that giving care to juvenile delinquents(except rapists or murderers like I said in the other comment) is the best way to stop young crimes.
I really love your interview! The 3 diffenret interivews is really good, that I can see the various side of the 'juvenile issue' The first interview with police officer show the new side of the teenage crime to me. It was relly shocking to me that police officer treat teenagers and normal adults diffenrently. Also, the point that they saw many teenager's change is interesting. I origianly heard that if teenagers got investigation, they treated like a monster and hitted several times. But, after I saw this interview, I know that police officers treated them as student, and make them adjust to the society. It was really helpful information to me!
답글삭제Next, talking about second interview with juvenile delinquence, I newly found that the life in juvenile hall is not that educative place for most of the juveniles. Like real prison, many of them learn new criminal technique in the new gang in juvenile hall, Also, they don't truely recognize the seriousness of their crime. But, it was quite interesting to me that after they got out of the hall, they feel ashamed, and want to live a new life.
And, after I saw the last interview, with counselor, I found out that the main reason of the juvenile crime is society made by adult. If society give enough interest to juvenile, most of the juvenile delinquency would not happend at all. If counseling with student, and their parents are done well, second conviction would not happen, and also the general cognition among the society would change.
I think this interview shows social stereotype toward juvenile delinquency well. Also, it shows the hidden aspect of this topic well. Thank you for the hard work!!
First of all, from the first interview, I was curious why you changed your original plan to interview a policeman of Ganwak district to the one working in Hwaseong-si. Through the story of Mr.Kim, my stereotype that 'most juvenile delinquents have negative family background' became solidified. I was impressed with the detailed description of the progress in dealing with the juvenile delinquents, especially with that there are social workers helping them and counseling them afterward.
답글삭제From the second interview, I was quite surprised with that the interviewee was also a normal student who dreamt of being a policeman. What changed his life? Why did he committed a crime? The question about those things are still remained - but personally I think that it's very good thing for him that he has been changed from his experiences of staying in a juvenile hall.
I felt very sorry and sad when I was reading the story from third interviewee. I totally agree with the fact that too strict discipline by parents often leads teenagers to misbehave and commit juvenile delinquencies. I have known a teenage boy who are raised in a very strict educational family atmosphere and he was always like a bomb explosive with just a one touch. Fortunately he hasn't done anything bad, but too much intension with suppression from parents can result in bad ending. It's also somewhat sad that because of the financial limit, no counseling with parents or teachers is possible. It should be changed to make the teenagers have better life.
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답글삭제Your subject was interesting and I enjoyed your interview very much. In your interview, what really impressed me was the fact that there are two types of parents of juvenile delinquents, - One is a kind of parents who are too strict to their children, the other is a kind of those who are too permissive to their children - because I have already seen these two kinds of parents when I was in high school. One student who had strict parents was always observed by his parents, and even his phone was checked by them. So he was always depressed and nervous. On the other hand, another student who had permissive parents was so outrageous that he didn’t attend class, roamed around after school, and didn’t come back to dorm. So he was nicknamed like ‘Nammok-dong Freedom’. Even though they didn’t went to detention center as juvenile delinquents do, but both of them ended up being transferred to another school. So from my experiences, I agree on the idea that many juvenile delinquents have problematic parents. A maxim follows : As is the king, so are the people. Like master, like man.
삭제The interviews seemed comprehensive in their range, in that they help us grasp information about child crimes from the police, school, and children. It was particularly interesting to find that the three parties have different viewpoints, namely, that they are all involved in the issue from different standpoints. The viewpoints of all three parties should be taken into account when attempting to solve this serious issue.
답글삭제The experiences of the police officer should be valued for the guidelines it may provide, the comments made by the delinquent serves to insight us about the thought processes and attitudes of these child criminals before and after their criminal act, and social workers know best the effectiveness and limitations of the current policies. Compounding such various viewpoints would serve as a good starting point to find an effective solution to this rising problem
The 3 interviews were all very informative for me.
답글삭제First, I think the idea of classifying types of parents of juvenile delinqeunts into 2 types is easy to understand and reliable even if classification can always brings about the problem of the generalization. After I have read about the resources you have found from articles and videos before the interview, I also perceived two broad types of their parents; one who are too busy to care about their childeren and one who care their childeren too much giving them strict guidelines.
Second, I realized that maybe the biggest problem for the juvenile delinquents to live in South Korea is not the moment in the detention center but the moment after the detention center. From the Hoon's response to Okchul, he could perceive that there is stigma to him whereever he goes. Also, it is really difficult to study and find the adequate job. Also from the Park's response to SeungYeon, the schools don't provide enough future plan for the juvenile delinquents which is a big problem.
I was surprised that Mr. Kim and Ms. Park said the same thing about juvenile delinquents that is a home background. I knew that was true, and became curious how can 'Hoon' be changed in our society. I mean, a home background is very important to teenagers and it is hard to be changed. What was a chance which makes 'Hoon' be determined to be changed? Because there are a lot of teenagers who don't be cured. I want to know about the difference factor.
답글삭제And also, this is a small thing but you said "Wee center is the center that deals with students who are maladaptive in schools of Seung-Beuk dong", but 'Wee' center is not for delinquents or maladaptive students. Almost all schools in Korea have that Wee center to help students about all of things in school of course including maladaptive things. It is a counseling center in school, but the facilities are very fancy to promote students' approach and many students visit there to have a rest.
These three interviews were all fascinating because it told stories of a life that I had never know before. One of the things that I realized while watching the interview is that we should maybe change our approaches toward juvenile delinquents in our society. Right now, as seen in the second interview, halls are designed to strain and punish youngsters who have committed crimes. However, it should change its form into a place of love and education. According to the interview one of the main reason they commit crimes is because their parents do not care about them at all. They need to be loved and cared for by their parents, yet a lot of the parents are too busy with their work that they can't provide their children with what they really need. Halls and detention centers should function as guardians of these youngsters and play a parenting role.
답글삭제By the way I'm Hye Jin Woo....:-)
답글삭제Your subject was interesting.Actually i was worried about interview because i thought that the interviewee would act agressively. But seeing the interview tesults i think he was quite gentle. I am sad that the stereotype about family background is true.
답글삭제It is surprising that you were able to bring real juvenile delinquent to interview(considering that their stereotypes are generally negetive.) It was also a creative choice to select an officer and a school councelor. Yet,there are a few things that I'd like to add if iwere you.
답글삭제First, it would be better if asked Hoon about people he met inside the detention center, in that way, might have been able to hear differrent stories of other juvenile delinquents, which would be much more effective. Also, although your theme is about 'juvenile delinquents', the description about 'juvenile delinquents' is not enough. It would be better if you described better about their own life, rather than their background.
Second, I could not see direct questions about their stereotypes. Although the contents of interview shows that some of our sterotypes are wrong, mentioning it directly would have been more easier to disclose their stereotypes.