A series of recent child sexual abuse cases led the government to strengthen the punishment and management of child sex offenders and the level of punishment as well. However, citizens' concerns and anxiety over child sexual abuse incidents have not e...
A series of recent child sexual abuse cases led the government to strengthen the punishment and management of child sex offenders and the level of punishment as well. However, citizens' concerns and anxiety over child sexual abuse incidents have not eased. Protecting children from sexual abuse is the most urgent and important task among all the other crime prevention.
Child sexual abuse requires different approach because it has different characteristics from other crimes. It is committed covertly, usually for a long period of time. In most cases, the crime is committed by habitual offenders and its victims are more vulnerable than victims of other crimes.
A series of anti-child sexual abuse measures so far has focused only on toughening penalties and preventing recidivism, which led to lack of measures to prevent the crime in the first place and enhance safety for children. In addition, there have been many controversies and conflicts over excessively severe punishment, integrated modification of sexual abuse-related laws, legal problems such as the issue of an offense subject to complaint, and effectiveness of major anti-recidivism measures including electronic anklets and medication to suppress sex drive. Therefore, now is the time when more practical alternatives and solutions are needed.
Against this backdrop, this study first analyzed the current status of child sexual abuse in Korea through statistical research on various data about child sexual abuse. Then, it closely examined the content of new laws and institutions and suggested appropriate future direction for policy measures for fundamentally eradicating child sexual abuse in a comprehensive perspective, after closely checking the meaning and limits of existing measures. Main object of this study is child sexual abuse cases committed on children under thirteen and the data and statistics of related government agencies including the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs and the Ministry of Justice were used as supplementary material.
The results are as following.
First, reporting should be encouraged. Given the fact that child sexual abuse cases are committed by the people around victims covertly and habitually, it is important to prevent the cases from being covered up. Policy change should also be considered to expand the legal duty of reporting the crime and to reduce the risk of child sexual abuse through bestowing more legal generosity and opportunity to sex offenders by setting a an amnesty period. In addition, various policy measures should be sought to raise the reporting rate of child sexual abuse cases while protecting victims' anonymity and enhancing reward for reporting.
Second, social safety net should be established for the prevention of the crime in the first place. Active policy measures have to be implemented to protect more than one million neglected children and security system should be enhanced for the prevention of the crime, namely, designating specialized sex crime prevention zones. Plus, child safety guard and school protecting activities should be performed more actively with the support from the government.
Third, security maintenance activities should be reinforced for the early arrest of offenders and the prevention of recidivism. Police activities for the arrest of wanted sex criminals should be promoted by a series of measures such as creating sex crime squads. A system in which a location-tracking device is put on every child sexual offender and the information is shared with the police should be established as well. The police has to reinforce the management of possible criminals and give positive consideration to designating special security zones for the enhancement of early investigation.
Fourth, effective sex crime prevention education should be carried out. The education should be conducted systematically by education professionals in a way that is customized to the people who get the education. For this, a specialized infrastructure in which all the related agencies cooperate with different regions and local schools for the development and supply of education model has to be established.
Fifth, stronger protective measures for victims of child sexual abuse must be put into place. A child sexual abuse squad should be created and child sexual abuse specialist system must be implemented for the establishment of professional investigation system for victims. More specialized investigation method has to be developed and the investigation environment must be improved as well. In addition, an investigation system in which agencies and specialists from various fields can participate and cooperate together should be established. Furthermore, an integrated system in which a victim is video-recorded only once with prosecutors, police officers, and specialists present should be urgently implemented. To this end, the testimony recording system should be improved as well. In addition, a special system for the preservation of evidence has to be reinforced and the police should take whole responsibility of rescuing victims with reorganized rescue system. The fund for this task has to be managed by a separate foundation. Plus, comprehensive protective measures to help victims, including legal order of compensation for victims, the restriction on the employment of sexual offenders, and expanded authority for citizens to check sexual offenders' criminal records, must be implemented.
Child sexual abuse has been on the rise despite police's efforts to curb it and the methods of the crime are getting more daring, leading to the need of government-level comprehensive countermeasures with the support of citizens. I hope the measures suggested in this study for enhanced respond to child sexual abuse and reinforced protective measures for victims could provide solutions for the fundamental eradication of child sexual abuse.