It has been found that the number of adolescent offenders aged between 10 and 13 who have no criminal record has been steadily increasing in recent years, according to a police report released on Thursday.

According to a National Police Agency study provided to Rep. Kim Hoi-jae of the governing Democratic Party, 8,474 persons in the age range committed violent crimes last year, representing an increase for the third straight year from 7,081 in 2019 and 7,535 in 2020.

According to the Juvenile Act, people under the age of 14 cannot be held legally liable for their crimes and are instead transferred to juvenile detention centers rather than prisons, or are required to perform community service as punishment.

Between 2017 and 2021, a total of 35,390 young juveniles were sentenced to juvenile court on criminal counts such as murder, sexual assault, robbery, theft, and arson, among other things.

Furthermore, according to the findings of the survey, 22,202 13-year-olds committed crimes over the previous five years, accounting for the largest proportion of juvenile offenders (62.7 percent). They were followed by 7,388 12-year-olds, 3,387 11-year-olds, and 2,413 10-year-olds.

The most common sort of crime was theft, which was done by 22,993 individuals. Physical assault was committed by 10,199 people, sexual assault was committed by 1,913, robbery was committed by 47 people, and murder was committed by nine people.

Teenagers who commit crimes while shielded by their juvenile status are becoming more cruel and horrible than ever, according to the author. She believes the age of criminal responsibility should be decreased from 14 to 13 and that those who commit crimes on a regular basis should be punished in court.