← All interviews

Interview · Sentencing & prosecution

Josh Rovner

Senior Research Analyst, The Sentencing Project

https://youtu.be/8v7HwboH7oM ↗

Chapters

Key moments from the conversation, each paired with a Korean case that raises the same question.

Chapter 01

Discussed throughout the recording

Does someone become an adult on their 18th birthday?

  • No meaningful developmental change happens on a particular birthday.
  • Psychological and neurological development is gradual and continues past the legal age of adulthood.
  • Age lines are administratively necessary, but they should not settle how courts judge a person's maturity and responsibility.

The Korean parallel

Korea's age of criminal responsibility

Article 9 of the Criminal Act sets 14 as the minimum age of criminal responsibility. In July 2026 the government was considering lowering it for certain serious or repeated offenses; no final change had been announced.

Chapter 02

Discussed throughout the recording

Should offenses tied to adolescence be judged differently?

  • Some misconduct is bound up with the social circumstances and legal limits that come with adolescence.
  • He challenges the idea that young people are more criminally inclined than adults: adults account for most arrests in the United States.
  • Youth-specific offenses should be read in light of the developmental and social conditions that produce them.

The Korean parallel

School violence legislation

Korea's Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against Violence in Schools sets up a separate framework of educational, disciplinary and protective measures. These are distinct from criminal convictions, although some conduct can also be a crime.

Next interview

Hal S. Stern →