'School Violence Increases Every Year'... 184 Perpetrators Apprehended in Sejong City Last Year

Incidents Concentrated in the Capital Region,
But High Relative to Population Size
Various Charges Including Assault, Injury, Sexual Violence, Insult, and Defamation

The number of students apprehended for involvement in school violence has increased every year, surpassing 20,000 last year. School violence cases in Sejong City have also been rising annually.

According to school violence statistics submitted by the National Police Agency to the National Assembly, the number of apprehended students for school violence rose from 11,968 in 2021 to 14,438 in 2022, 15,436 in 2023, and 20,722 in 2024, showing a steady yearly increase.

In the first half of this year alone, 11,023 students were booked, about 2,000 more than during the same period last year. By type of crime, assault and injury cases increased from 6,000 in 2021 to 9,726 in 2024, a rise of 3,726 cases (62.1%) over three years. During the same period, sexual violence cases also grew from 2,879 to 5,076. Defamation and insult cases rose significantly as well (from 958 to 2,154), as did extortion (from 935 to 1,700).

In Sejong City, 82 students were apprehended in 2021, 107 in 2022, 119 in 2023, and 184 in 2024. This data shows that the number of apprehended students related to school violence has been increasing every year. Unlike other metropolitan cities with populations over one million, Sejong City's figures are high relative to its population size.

Meanwhile, the number of school violence reports received by the 117 School Violence Reporting Center also increased by more than 10,000 over three years, from 37,845 in 2021 to 43,013 in 2022, 43,629 in 2023, and 49,057 in 2024.