Effects of Sandplay Therapy on Aggression and Brain Waves of Female Juvenile Delinquents

According to the white paper on youth by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in the Republic of Korea, male adolescents who committed a crime accounted for 82.8% of the total, four times as high as the rate of their female counterparts who made up 17.2% of the total (MOGEF, 2012). Due to such predominance in the rate of male juvenile delinquents over that of female juvenile delinquents, delinquency by female adolescents draws relatively lesser attention and therefore there is relatively less intervention for them (Kim & Choi, 2004). However, not only are the number of female juvenile delinquencies increasing but also the aspect of their delinquency is changing from nonviolent delinquencies such as mere theft or sexual delinquency into more violent, diverse delinquencies not differentiated from those of male adolescents (Min & Kim, 1999). In addition, females start their delinquency at an earlier age and continue it for a longer time than their male counterparts (Kwak, 2007). Among the causes of juvenile delinquency, aggression (Dryfoos, 1989) is a psychological characteristic that is common among juvenile delinquents, although the aspects of expressing it are various. Despite an assertion that environmental systems such as family are a major factor affecting their delinquency both directly and indirectly, aggression, an internal factor of each individual, was verified to be most related to juvenile delinquency (Park & Kim, 1997). A previous study as well explained high aggression as a major psychological trait of juvenile delinquents (Jang, 2001). There are diverse perspectives on defining aggressive behaviors, but generally aggressive behavior is behavior which triggers injury or pain in others and implies anti-social intention (Jeong, Yoon, Shin, Kim, & Jang, 2012; Tedeschi, Lindskold, & Rosonfeld, 1985). Juvenile delinquents fail to suppress their impulses when satisfaction of diverse desires is required, and when they are frustrated with unsatisfied desires, they express such frustration with aggressive behavior, which leads to delinquent behavior. Moreover, they come to have depression and animosity due to emotional instability like anger, and do not control such emotions and exhibit aggressive behavior (Park, 2002). They are acOriginal Article Symbols and Sandplay Therapy 2013;4(2):45-50 http://dx.doi.org/10.12964/jsst.130006 eISSN : 2288-5188 pISSN : 2234-0556