77% of infanticide suspects in their teens, 20s: data

A suspect arrested for allegedly killing her two newborn babies and storing their bodies in a refrigerator is escorted to the Prosecutors' Office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on June 30. (Yonhap)

More than 70 percent of infanticide suspects caught by police over the past nine years were in their teens and 20s, a lawmaker said Sunday, citing police data.

Out of 86 people accused of killing young children between 2013-2021, 38 suspects, or 44 percent, were in their 20s, while 29 suspects, of 34 percent, were aged 14-19, according to National Police Agency data released by Rep. Jung Woo-taek of the ruling People Power Party.

The two age groups accounted for 77 percent of the total suspects, followed by those in their 30s (19 percent) and those aged between 41-50 (3 percent).

By gender, women far exceeded men, with 78 suspects being female, while only eight were male.

During the same period, 361 people were accused of child abandonment. Of the accused, 73 were aged 20 or under and 140 were recorded to be in their 20s. The two age groups accounted for 59 percent of the total.

The lawmaker attributed unexpected pregnancies at a young age to the higher number of suspects in those age groups in cases of infanticide and child abandonment.

By Choi Jae-hee(cjh@heraldcorp.com)