In separate cases recently, family courts in the nation have handed down decisions concerning juvenile crime that appear to contradict each other. While one court committed an offender to a reformatory, two others decided that the offenders should face criminal charges. These decisions should prompt the public to ponder what roles a family court should play in dealing with juvenile offenders.
In Yamaguchi Prefecture, the family court recently handled the case of an 18-year-old male student who had been arrested for throwing a homemade bomb into a classroom at prefectural Hikari Senior High School and wounding 58 students. He targeted one student who was a member of a group that had teased the boy for his shyness.
Although prosecutors in the case called for criminal punishment, the court concluded that the boy should be sent to a secondary reformatory, noting that the boy had made and thrown the bomb in retaliation for bullying that had caused him considerable anguish.