Since the legislation of 'Act on punishment of sexual violence and protecting victims' (thereafter 'Sexual Violence Special Law') to reinforce the punishment on sexual violences and to protect the victims in 1994, the Act has been revised 11 times and...
Since the legislation of 'Act on punishment of sexual violence and protecting victims' (thereafter 'Sexual Violence Special Law') to reinforce the punishment on sexual violences and to protect the victims in 1994, the Act has been revised 11 times and is in effect. However, according to the statistics from the National Police Agency, sexual violence has increased 35.7% in 2004 against 2000. In 2005, it showed victims of sexual violence under the age of 13 were 738 cases (5.4%) among 13,446 cases of entire sexual violence. The number of total sexual violence against the previous year was decreased by 643 cases (4.5%) while sexual violence against children under the age of 13 increased by 15 cases (2.07%). Sexual violence is not decreasing but increasing continuously and if it is left alone than it will become a big social problem.
The continued increase in sexual violence shows that the Sexual Violence Special Law is not contributing in preventing the violence. However, it is true that the Sexual Violence Special Law is expanding the range of punishment and did its best to protect the victims. However, there are many problems in the details of punishments, punishment process, enforcement processes of the Sexual Violence Special Law. The most important things among these problems are the inadequacy of the related laws, low level of punishments, victims' reluctance to report. To solve these problems, the characteristics of sexual criminals should be understood and find out actions that needs to be punished and regard these as crimes though these can not be punished by the current law and introduce punishment system that is effective in preventing sexual violence. The first thing to do is to prepare a system to treat and educate the criminals and spreading out the awareness that both men and women are equal through gender-equal education starting from the early ages to the adults thus change the distorted sex culture and prevent crimes through education on preventative measures.
The thing to be actualized in the future is coping with crimes using a tracking system using mobile phones to apprehend the criminals at an early stage and to prevent from washing/cleaning the victims, removing hairs and fingerprints using adhesive tapes for the purpose of destroying evidence after committing crimes, and it maybe the most effective way to prevent crimes since there is no ground for violation of human rights because the victim can press a button and the crime scene can be tracked down.
There should be a strong punishment to prevent crimes by introducing three-strikes system, and remove an opportunity for a second offense by concentrated protective supervision through the introduction of electrical supervision system.
The biggest problem of sexual violence is the increase in unreported crimes due to not reporting the crimes so sexual violence is regarded as something which is not important and offenders may commit sexual violence. There are roughly three reasons for not reporting the crimes by female victims of sexual violence even though the victims suffer mentally and physically. First, it is because they are afraid of becoming known to others about the rapes or even blamed for it. Second, the victims hesitate to report because they are afraid of the retaliation from the perpetrator. Third, the victims can suffer a secondary damage from the investigation processes caused by the investigating office's handling of the victims. Therefore, ways to solve these problem are to prevent from exposing the victim's face by introducing female investigator system exclusively for sexual violence, exclusive investigation office, sexual violence exclusive court since there is the most likely possibility for a victim to suffer a secondary damage from investigating offices or court rooms. Since most of the sexual violences is only known to the victims and the perpetrators only even when the sexual violence is reported, the victims should be free from a court trial, prevent from investigated unnecessarily and conduct scientific investigation through securing evidences at an early stage through the establishment of a gene data bank as a way of securing evidences easily by the victims of sexual violences. The level of punishment should be raised if the sentences are generous compared to the level of punishment from overseas by analyzing the weighing of an offence from a court on sexual violences. It is true that the punishment is generous even though the benefit and protection of the law is relatively strong for sexual violence against children. Furthermore, probation is the most common sentence and to prevent this the level of punishment should be adjusted through the rationalization of punishment. There should be regulations for aggravated punishing of rapists of pregnant women since protection is relatively stronger in the benefit and protection of the law. Strengthening of the level of punishment is not only aimed to retribute on sexual violences committed in the past but also aimed to prevent from criminals and general public to commit sexual violence.
The current system of releasing details of sexual offenders opens the target for public announcements indiscriminately. It is necessary to regulate the announcement methods and its scope by classifying the classification standards in details into low danger, middle danger, high danger rather than the above kind of public announcing regulations. Indiscriminate public announcement will results in a target being selected for public announcement to those who may not be needed to be exposed to the excess public announcement.
There are many cases where the situation becomes irrational where many of the perpetrator can not be punished due to the statute of limits caused by the characteristics of sexual violence. To complement this, the statute of limit should be abolished or extended but even though the statute of limit is abolished or extended many of sexual violences are offences subject to complaint and thus there is a time limit for making complaint so it is not going to be very effective thus the time limit for making complaint should be abolished as well.
Sexual violence is a crime that kills the victim three times. First, when victimized, second, by inappropriate management from police and legal offices, third, when the wrongdoer is threatening the victim after released from prison without remorse. Therefore, sexual violence is a serious crime that can cause three harms. The law should be effective and legislated with focusing on the protection of victims to prevent the above, To be equipped with these conditions, the current situation should be understood and legislation of laws are needed that can handle these immediately.