7 out of 10 School Violence Victims Last Year Were Elementary Students... Decreasing Age of School Violence

69.3% of School Violence Victims Last Year Were Elementary Students
Followed by Middle School Students (20.5%) and High School Students (8.3%)
Elementary Students Account for 10.8% of School Violence Arrests This Year

Last year, 7 out of 10 victims of school violence were elementary school students. The number of elementary school perpetrators has also been increasing every year, and this year, about 10% of the apprehended school violence offenders were elementary school students.

According to data on the "Status of School Violence Reports and Arrests by Type" received by Yong Hye-in, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee from the Police Agency on the 30th, among the 43,931 victims of school violence last year, the number of elementary school victims was the highest in the order of ▲ elementary school students 69.3% (30,460) ▲ middle school students 20.5% (9,028) ▲ high school students 8.3% (3,686).

Accordingly, the number of elementary school students apprehended for school violence is also on the rise. The numbers have surged annually: ▲ 2020 (572) ▲ 2021 (858) ▲ 2022 (1,399). As of June this year, elementary school students accounted for 10.8% (809) of the total 7,474 apprehended offenders.

The proportion of middle school students apprehended also increased by 5.4 percentage points from 26.6% in 2020 to 32.0% in the first half of this year. In contrast, the proportion of high school students apprehended decreased by 3.1 percentage points from 27.6% to 24.5% during the same period.

This trend is also evident in the number of counseling requests from school violence victims. According to a youth counseling issue paper published in March by the Korea Youth Counseling and Welfare Institute under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, while the total number of counseling visits increased by about 35%, the number of elementary school student counselees nearly doubled from 217 to 425.

Middle school students also increased by 40.1%, from 561 to 786, indicating a clear trend toward younger age groups among school violence victims.

The police plan to utilize the School Police Officer (SPO) system to promote activities aimed at preventing and eradicating school violence throughout all processes, including prevention, response to incidents, and follow-up management.