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 White paper on crime 2005 Part4/Chapter3/Section3/1 

1 Treatment to cultivate sympathy for other people'spain

  More than60%of juvenile training school instructors,who observe juvenile delinquents'everyday life and work for their rehabilitation,perceive changes in the contents of their troubles,and more than70%feel that these changes have made treatment for juvenile delinquents even more difficult.Many of them feel that treatment has become the most difficult due to problems in their attributes related to feelings and emotions,such as'lacking sympathy and understanding/imagination for other people's pain',or'being unable to control their own emotions'.
  Recently,it is pointed out that there have been an increasing number of juveniles who cannot solve a problem when they get confused and worried in conflicts with their family members and friends.Recent juveniles are easily led into atrocious delinquency by a trivial matter.Their motives are often hard to understand and even the delinquents themselves cannot give full explanation.Problems related to juveniles'feelings and emotions might be one of the causes of these cases.
  In contrast,further consideration has come to be required towards the feelings of victims and their families,and guidance for juvenile delinquents is expected to be further enhanced to make them face their own crime,recognize its significance and the feelings of victims,and sincerely respond to the victims of their crime.
  Considering such problems in juveniles'attributes and the needs of society,there is a need to enhance treatment to cultivate sympathy for other people's pain to get juvenile delinquents as perpetrators to repent,reflect,and expiate their own crime.For that purpose,they must first be trained to get rid of their disorderly life to restore a sound life style by taking meals and sleep regularly.It is also important to make them look back on themselves,develop the ability to reflect on their past conduct,and acquire the habit of thinking and acting for themselves.In addition to training them to stabilize their basic lives and develop the ability to think,systematic treatment programs need to be developed,focusing on making them reflect on their own delinquency and related experiences and emotions,and consider as perpetrators the pain they imposed on victims.Through these processes,they can face their victims with sincerity,and can take appropriate actions such as offering apologies.
  In facilities conducting treatment for correction and rehabilitation,the enhancement of education from the viewpoint of victims has been further emphasized.The focus is not only on making juveniles repent their delinquency,but also on cultivating their ability to have wide sympathy and reflect on themselves so as to communicate and live together with various people in society.In order to make them feel sympathy for victims'pain,special education and treatment such as role lettering has been developed.
  As an increasing number of juvenile delinquents require much time for training to acquire humanity before they come to repent their delinquency and compensate for their victims,treatment of juvenile delinquents has become more and more difficult.