Child Criminals: From the Role of the Series to the Reflection of the Truth in Society

Abstract

              The purpose of this article is to present the roles of child crime characters in the series by comparing the content presentations of Juvenile Justice (2022) and Girl from Nowhere Season 2 (2021), with the situation in society that this article is qualitative research and case study research method. The series depicts child criminals, reflecting the perspective of producers and society as opposed to seeing children as pure as white cloth, which is a positive scope. The protagonists are women who have the power to judge and punish child crimes, portraying not sweet and neat women but they are women who rise up against social injustice. However, there is a difference in the origin of the power. In Juvenile Justice (2022), the protagonist is a female judge named Shim Eun Seok, who has exercised legal powers in accordance with social rules, while in the Girl from Nowhere series, the protagonist, Nanno, uses supernatural powers that are consistent with the beliefs and attitudes of Thai people, who believe that the law of karma will punish evil people rather than solving problems with laws and rules in society.  

              Most of the children's characters in the series are imitating adults. The boy characters will use their physical strength. The girl characters are more vulnerable and are often bullied, which leads to the rise of fighting, that reinforces the producer's view of portraying child characters with mature and over-talented traits, leading to the question of whether punishments should be waived or reduced for child crimes. Thailand and South Korea have adopted consistent laws based on international principles and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while the problem of child crimes continues to escalate in global society.