South Korea moves to lower juvenile criminal age — but only for serious crimes

The government has unveiled a proposal to conditionally lower the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to under 13 — but only for violent, serious or repeat offenses. The conclusion comes roughly five months after President Lee Jae Myung ordered a public deliberation process to begin in February.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family reported the results of that deliberation to a Cabinet meeting Tuesday morning. The ministry also proposed lowering the minimum age for criminal prosecution for certain offenses and put forward a plan to establish a follow-up consultative body involving related ministries, including the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Policy Committee.

The ministry ran a social dialogue consultative body from March through April, bringing together related ministries and experts. The group gathered public input through an online hearing, a deliberative forum involving 212 citizens from across the country, and a video meeting with the chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Among the citizen panel's deliberation results, 46.7 percent favored lowering the age only for violent, serious or repeat crimes — the largest share. Another 30.2 percent called for a blanket reduction across all offenses, while 17 percent supported keeping the current threshold.

The panel noted that even if the age were lowered, a significant number of cases would likely still fall under juvenile protective disposition rather than criminal punishment, and called for a simultaneous expansion of supporting infrastructure — including juvenile classification review centers, juvenile reformatories and specialized personnel.

Priority areas for systemic reform identified by the panel included protecting victims' rights, improving police investigation procedures, expanding protective disposition infrastructure, restoring family functioning, and addressing youth mental health and gambling problems.

The ministry also presented a set of institutional reform tasks for follow-up discussion among related ministries.

To improve the initial response system, the ministry proposed reforming the mandatory referral system for juveniles under criminal age, establishing legal grounds for police investigation guidelines and investigative authority, and introducing a victim recovery mechanism at the police stage.

To strengthen the effectiveness of protective dispositions, the proposals included creating a new family therapy order, reforming the Type 7 protective disposition — which involves placement at a juvenile medical care facility — to allow outpatient treatment, diversifying the length of reformatory detention, and reinforcing post-release management systems.

Additional reform tasks covered expanding protective disposition infrastructure such as juvenile classification review centers; increasing the number of specialized judges, investigators and probation officers dedicated to juvenile protection trials; guaranteeing victims' right to make statements and receive psychological information notices during juvenile protection hearings; ensuring access to case records; and strengthening victim support functions.

Earlier in the public deliberation process, the government had sought to keep the age of criminal non-responsibility at 14, as it currently stands. It reversed course, however, amid growing public concern over the rise and increasing severity of crimes committed by juveniles under criminal age.

According to the Korean National Police Agency, the number of juveniles under criminal age apprehended by police was 9,606 in 2020, 11,677 in 2021, 17,066 in 2022, 20,479 in 2023, 20,814 in 2024 and 21,095 in 2025.

Between 2020 and 2025, violent crime saw the sharpest increase by offense type, rising 2.8-fold. Rape and sexual assault nearly doubled at 1.98 times, as did theft at 1.97 times.

Even as cases involving juveniles under criminal age have grown, many have not resulted in protective dispositions. Of the juvenile cases under criminal age received by courts last year, 9,093 cases (41.4 percent) were dismissed without a hearing. Adding cases that ended in a no-disposition ruling (1,631 cases), 48.8 percent of all cases did not result in a protective disposition — exceeding the share of cases that did receive one, such as placement in a reformatory (10,401 cases, or 47.4 percent).