Taipei County police yesterday arrested a 14-year-old boy, surnamed Tsai (
Tsai was arrested after some of his confederates gave his name to prosecutors who offered them a plea bargain.
In July, police arrested Lai Wei-ting (
Prosecutor Liu Cheng-wu (劉承武) at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office (台北地檢署), said Tsai and his subordinates had committed several robberies and gang rapes, mostly in Panchiao City, Taipei County and Wanhua District, Taipei City.
Police reported that the young men are suspected of severely beating a 13-year-old girl and gang-raping her while her parents were out. According to prosecutors, Tsai, a junior high school dropout, is extremely cunning and was very cautious when picking victims. He always ensured his associates' complicity by having them gang rape his targets.
Prosecutors said that Tsai and the other members of the gang could receive life sentences.
Responding to news of the case, Chang Ping-wu (張平吾), director of the Department of Crime Prevention and Correction at the National Central Police University, yesterday pointed out that youth offenders are getting younger and younger.
According to Taipei City's Bureau of Education, as many as 2,809 students were reportedly involved in crime over the past two years.
Chang said research shows that only one out of every ten gangs present in schools are organized by students. The others are formed by school dropouts or adults.
Schools rate students according to their academic performance. When students lack the appropriate knowledge, direction and encouragement, they of course find ways to develop outside of school, Chang said.
Chang suggested that education and police authorities consider adopting more effective measures to deal with the problem of gangs in schools and youth crime -- such as charging senior police officers with the responsibility for communicating with students and giving them appropriate guidance. This would help identify gangs trying to infiltrate schools earlier and prevent them from doing so.
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