The present study was performed to identify the socio-psychiatric aspects of adolescent criminal offences reported on daily newspapers and to use them as basic materials for prevention of adolescent criminal offences. The author analysed 609 cases of adolescent criminal offence who reported on Dong-A Ilbo and Chung-Cheong Ilbo, from 1991 to 1995. The total numbers of cases were 609, including 573 males and 36 females. In data analysis, the subjects were devided into three subgroups as the student group(221 cases), the working group(70 cases), and the jobless group (318 cases). and the result of the study were as follows.
1. The cases of adolescent criminal offences were more common in male. Their mean ages were the youngest in the student in contrast to the late subgroup of the working or the jobless.
2. The antisocial personality was the most common in the jobless, while the dramatic cluster including the borderline or masochistic personality was more prevalent in thr working, and the anxious cluster was more in the student. In psycho-social stressors, the student was suffered from various stress in school, home and their social life, while the working showed more serious stress in their hetero-sexual and business life, or more experienced maladjustment in their social and job life, and ` the jobless group showed more stressful burden due to economical problems, or more experienced maladjustment in their family life.
3. In subtypes of criminal offences, violence, fatal assult, fatal injury, parricide, and theft or group offences were more common in the student, while murder, rape and raising the penalty or solitary offences were more frequently observed in the working, and felony was the most prominent offence in the jobless.
4. The incidence of student´s offences reported in daily newspapers was remarkably increased, while
those of the working or the jobless were decreased. The most vulnerable time of criminal offence in r s ; adolescents was from 7-12 PM, and these trends were prominent in the jobless compared with the student in afternoon, and the working in midnight.
5. In motivation of crimes, the psychological conflicts were the most in the student, while the - curiosity,the various personality problems, and the heterosexual conflicts were common in the working, and the economical problems or the absence of motivations were prominent in the jobless:
6. In the tools of crime, the sharp materials were the most ones in the student compared´ with the fists,knives or guns in the working, and the absence of tools in the jobless. In the methods of crime, the latent aggression or physical aggression were the most ones in the student, compared with the forced aggression or direct aggression in the working.
7. In terms of accompanied person participating in criminal offence, group offence was prevalent(609%). The numbers of accompanied persons were more than 4 persons in the student, compared with the 2 persons in the working group, and the 1 person in the jobless. In the age ranges of accompanied persons, the student showed the youngest, while the jobless showed the oldest ones.
8. Males(63.2%) were more common in victims of adolescent criminal offences, about 40% of victims was the absence of job, and adults older than 21 years old(34.6%) was the most prevalent, followed by children younger than 11 years old(21.8%). Most of the victims in the student were their friends, lovers or parent with minor injury, while those in the working were passengers with more serious injury. The 67.8% of abusers´ was unknown persons with victims, and these trends were prominent in the jobless compared with more known persons in the student.
9. In the characteristics of the abuser, the working used more various psychoactive; substances or alcohols, and more frequently experienced hallucination or delusion at the time of criminal offence compared with the other groups.
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