2 Current status and issues with offenses by young offenders

With young offenders the rate per population of those cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses was higher than with whole adults, although lower than juveniles (Fig. 7-2-1-1-1 [2]), and the proportion of young offenders to total offenders cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses was also relatively high (Fig. 7-2-1-1-3). Examining the percent distribution of young offenders by type of offense revealed that theft accounted for the highest proportion as with juveniles (Fig. 7-2-1-1-8), but when compared to juvenile delinquents the modus operandi of theft tended to be more malignant and diverse (Fig. 7-2-1-1-11), and the proportion of offenses other than theft was also high, thus indicating greater diversity and dispersive trends in their criminal tendencies (Table 7-2-2-2).

In addition, approximately 47% of probationers at age 20-29 and approximately 38% of new inmates within the same range of age had histories of protective measures while juveniles (Fig. 7-2-5-2), thus their delinquent tendencies were considered not to have been sufficiently corrected, which then led them to subsequent criminal punishment.

The survey on the featured article, which examined the criminal punishment status of those discharged from juvenile training schools, revealed that 38.5% were sanctioned criminally by age 25 (Fig. 7-3-2-1), and juveniles committed theft, violent, sexual, and drug offenses, had higher rate to commit the same type of crime as before than other people, thus indicating that their criminal tendencies maintaind the course. In addition, and regardless of the type of delinquencies while juveniles, almost 50% of those that subsequently criminally punished committed theft, and their modus operandi tended to be more malignant than juveniles (Fig. 7-3-3-2-3, Table 7-3-3-2-1, Fig. 7-3-2-7). Theft, mainly shoplifting, accounted for a high proportion of juvenile delinquencies and is a delinquency that juveniles initially commit at a relatively young age, but the modus operandi tended to then become more malignant as the age of the offender rose, thus taking appropriate measures at an early stage of juvenile delinquencies is considered particularly important. In addition, of juveniles who committed violent delinquencies in this research 70% of those with two or more histories of commitment to a juvenile training school received criminal sanction and approximately 40% were sentenced to imprisonment without suspension of execution of the sentence, thus indicating the significance of their problems both in terms of quantity and quality, and the importance to enhance guidance to eliminate their problematic dispositional and environment-related problems, as well as environmental adjustments. It is also suggested that enhanced guidance for juveniles that committed drug delinquencies is necessary, based on the fact that a high percentage of males who committed drug delinquencies committed offenses after being discharged from juvenile training schools, with the type of offense tending not to be limited to drug offenses but also include other offenses (Fig. 7-3-3-2-4, Fig. 7-3-3-2-5), and that the number of young offenders cleared for drug offenses was large (Fig. 7-2-1-2-2). Furthermore, those of the sexual offense were considered to have their peculiar problems as the results of the analysis of the other offense types did not apply to them. It is, therefore, necessary to identify the problems specific to each individual, including the problems originated from sexual delinquencies, and to provide them with suitable treatment.