자료공개와 법제도적 개선을 통한 범죄통계 활용 활성화 방안 = Activating the Use of Crime Statistics Through Open Data Policy and Improvement Devices on the Law and Institution

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A paradigm change of opening government data demands a change in policies regarding crime statistics. The Open Government initiative in the US and the UK as well as the Government 3.0 plan in Korea pursue generating vitality and creativity in the private sector and solving a variety of social problems through opening government data on a large scale. Accordingly, the police in the US and the UK have increased the amount of raw data on crime provided to the public coupled with online crime maps. In contrast, the Korean police have maintained a negative policy toward providing raw data on crime. Justifying their policy on crime data, the Korean police rely on legal grounds such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Criminal Procedure Electronic Promoting Act. In addition, more important reasons to restrict opening data include concern for an invasion of privacy, regional stigmatization, reduction of property value, misuse of crime data, and disclosure of data problems. However, most of the reasons suggested by the police lacks validity as reasonable grounds for limiting public access to crime data. Rather providing crime data to the public is more likely to reduce groundless fear of crime, improve public confidence in police, support empowerment of citizens, promote transparency of government, and result in advancement of research. This study suggests several strategic approaches to expand a public access to crime data focusing on three aspects such as crime analysis outcomes, crime mapping, and raw data. In regard to who and how raw data on crime should be provided, we suggested three approaches: positive, negative, neutral one. Initially, raw data on crime need to be provided only to scholars who are qualified through a strict data request process and later they may be open to the general public. Finally, a law should be enacted to clarify the police``s duty to collect crime data by and a special agency exclusively charged for managing and distributing crime data need to be established.