On May 2021, 5, the revised Juvenile Law was passed by the House of Councilors.Until now, if the suspect was under the age of 28, his real name would not be disclosed even if he was arrested, but from now on, when a suspect is indicted for a violent crime, the real name of a specific juvenile (20-18 years old) can be reported. rice field.In addition, the range of repatriation from family courts to public prosecutors has been expanded, and it can be said that the juvenile law has become even more severe.
One of the reasons for this is that juvenile delinquents have become violent in recent years, and it was considered necessary to prevent the occurrence of such crimes.
In 2002, the number of reported cases of general criminal offenses in Japan was the worst, at 285 million.
Similarly, the number of juvenile delinquents arrested has continued to decline since 2003.However, even if it is a murder similar to that of an adult, when it comes to a juvenile crime, wide shows all take it up, so it is easy to attract the attention of society.In particular, there is concern that the increase in juvenile crimes with unclear motives may be linked to the tightening of punishments under the Juvenile Law since 2000.
Is it true that boys these days have become violent?
For example, in 2014, in Sasebo City, a 16-year-old high school girl killed her classmate with a knife. Says.In the same year, in Nagoya, a 19-year-old female college student beat a 77-year-old woman to death, and the boy said, ``I couldn't help but want to kill someone.''As a precursor to this, when he was in high school, this boy caused an incident in which he made his classmate drink thallium, leaving him with a major visual impairment.
Hearing that, I remembered the case I was in charge of when I was working at the forensic lab.In Shizuoka Prefecture, a 16-year-old high school girl gave her mother a small dose of thallium, gradually causing her to fall unconscious. It was.
Thallium is a rodenticide, one gram of which can easily kill a human.However, the two incidents are very similar in that they do not simply kill.In other words, it is not easy to understand the motives of taking thallium for purposes other than killing.
In the case in Shizuoka Prefecture, the details of the crime are left in a detailed blog on the Internet. It left a strong impression on me that, along with her "obsession", she was found to have a remarkable lack of empathy.
What these three cases have in common is that they committed animal cruelty when they were children, especially cats.
By the way, when it comes to the slaughter of human beings after animal cruelty, it reminds me of the serial child murder case in Kobe.
In the "Zetsuka," which is said to have been written by this boy after he graduated from a medical juvenile training school, he vividly describes his experience of cutting off the head of a cat.
At that time, the juvenile was recognized as having a conduct disorder (at that time, "behavioral disorder") and was sent to a medical juvenile training school.
In the past, adult violent offenders were simply apathetic and often classified as antisocial personality disorder, but the conduct disorder mentioned above is a disorder related to behavior and is classified into DSM-5 (American In the medical society manual of mental illness), it is considered to be violent towards humans and animals.
In the case of Sakekibara Seito, it is recognized that his attachment disorder led to the emergence of violence, and then he became sexually aroused by killing animals, leading to his behavior disorder.
However, was that really the only reason he killed two elementary school students?Later, in this regard, the view that autism spectrum disorders may have been overlooked has been expressed (Kusanagi, 2006).I remember that the first case in which Asperger's disorder (as it was called at the time) was recognized as having a significant reduction in the ability to take responsibility for a murder case was a case involving a high school boy in Toyokawa City (May 2000). month).
The diagnostic criteria for pervasive developmental disorder (currently autism spectrum disorder) were first clarified in DSM-1994 in 4, and were overlooked around the time of the Kobe serial child murders because they were not sufficiently widespread. (Miyagawa, 2016).Animal cruelty is often found in people on the autism spectrum, and it has been pointed out that the three murders mentioned at the beginning are all related to autism spectrum disorder.
By the way, in May 2019, a 2-year-old suspect was finally arrested in the murder of a married couple in Sakaimachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, after two years.
Here again, the suspect appears to have stated that he "wanted to kill people."In his case, he was also abused by animals when he was a child.
By the way, there are several reasons why children abuse animals, and it is not necessarily the case that those who have experienced them have committed violent crimes.And autism spectrum disorders don't always lead to gruesome murders.In many of the cases described here, there is a fixed symptom of strong obsession, the center of interest directed at "human death", and the desire to see it with one's own eyes. It is presumed that it may have developed into an incident.
Boys these days are obsessed with smartphones, and as a result, juvenile delinquents don't have to "huddle" in the real world as much as they used to.It is thought that this is one of the reasons why the number of juvenile crimes has decreased sharply.
Now, not all juvenile delinquents have turned violent, and it is hard to believe that tougher punishments under the Juvenile Law will lead to deterring crime.As for revision of the Juvenile Law, I have conducted a global study with students in the United States, which has implemented stricter punishments for juvenile laws ahead of Japan.
Revisions to the juvenile law in the United States have not been successful, and it turned out that in Seattle today, the zero-detention movement, which aims to keep juveniles who have committed crimes out of juvenile halls as much as possible, is flourishing.Therefore, rather than amending the Juvenile Law, the realization of appropriate treatment measures for juvenile delinquents who are involved in mental illnesses that they cannot overcome (others, such as pedophilia) is an urgent issue. it is conceivable that.
[References]
Atsuko Kusanagi (2006) Full record of 2500 days of correction for boy A Bungeishunju
Miyagawa, M. (2016): Behavioral Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder by DSM-5: Concerning Appraisal of Coexisting Cases with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Bulletin of Sugiyama Jogakuen University Faculty of Education, 9, 63–75.
