Introduction: South Korea’s Young, How Are You Doing?

Abstract

At the end of 2011, just as school violence was about to hit the national headlines, ‘Yoon-a’ was detained for one month at a ‘Juvenile Classification and Examination Center’ southwest of Seoul on school violence-related charges. Yoon-a had no prior criminal record and this was the first time she was put under police investigation. Like the K-pop boy-band Infinite, there were seven members in her ‘il-jin’ or ‘delinquent’ peer group. While her fellow group members were in the 2nd grade of high school, Yoon-a was herself in the 3rd grade. Her seniority bestowed upon her a degree of authority and power—which she both used and misused. The group members all knew each other from middle school and had maintained close and intimate contact after entering high school. Each of them had, to varying degrees, engaged in extortion by threatening their 1st grade juniors to hand over money.

Trees that go through windy storms have deeper roots and bear more nourishing fruit.

This message is carved into a stone that sits at the entrance of the ‘Seoul Juvenile Training School’ where the author has conducted research and volunteer work.