Minister Han Dong-hoon Appoints 30-Year-Old Criminal Psychologist as 'Youth Advisor'

A 30-year-old criminal psychologist has been appointed as the Ministry of Justice's 'Youth Advisor,' introduced as a campaign pledge by President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Hong Jeong-yoon, Youth Advisor at the Ministry of Justice. [Source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 12th, the Ministry of Justice recently hired Hong Jeong-yoon, a 30-year-old adjunct professor in the Department of Crime Correction Psychology at Kyonggi University, as a professional fixed-term youth advisor at the second grade level.

The Youth Advisor position was introduced in 24 central administrative agencies at the ministerial level following the presidential campaign pledge. They are assigned to each minister’s office to reflect the perspectives and voices of youth in government policies.

Advisor Hong graduated from the Department of Psychology at Keimyung University and earned both master's and doctoral degrees in criminal psychology from Kyonggi University. She was mentored by Professor Lee Soo-jung (59) of Kyonggi University, a criminal psychologist. In 2019, she worked as a research project operator at the Korea Youth Policy Institute, and in 2021, as a research investigator at the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice. From March to November last year, she served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Crime Correction Psychology at Kyonggi University.

In an interview earlier this year with Korea Job World under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Advisor Hong explained, "My father was a police officer. Incidents, accidents, stakeouts, interrogations, confessions?these were not just things I saw in novels or dramas, but everyday occurrences I encountered casually."

Regarding the response to stalking crimes, one of the criminal policy issues, she stated, "Most occur within intimate relationships, but there is not a single risk assessment tool for stalking offenders in Korea. Managing and supervising stalking offenders to prevent them from visiting victims’ residences or workplaces to commit retaliatory crimes will be crucial in protecting victims’ lives."

Starting this month, under the 'Regulations on the Establishment and Operation of the Ministry of Justice 2030 Advisory Group,' Advisor Hong also serves as the head of an advisory group composed of 20 members from the youth generation. She is responsible for gathering and conveying youth public opinion on Ministry of Justice policies, as well as discovering and proposing youth policy tasks.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.