The Sentencing, which has been recognized as an inherent right of judges, has been paid sharp attention to its reformation. The standard for the weighing has been enacted from July 1, 2009 in order to rectify its inexpedience and imbalance. Currently,...
The Sentencing, which has been recognized as an inherent right of judges, has been paid sharp attention to its reformation. The standard for the weighing has been enacted from July 1, 2009 in order to rectify its inexpedience and imbalance. Currently, the second commission has continuously streamlined the weighing of an offense by putting an effort to establish a standard for additional crimes and to provide an amendment to the standard for sexual abuse.
However, the incessant incidents of child sexual abuse and its murder have created an air of anxiety. This brought a huge criticism on the governmental policy and court's decisions, especially, after the kind-feeling decision of the Jo Doo-Soon case in September, 2009. To relieve this public anxiety, both government and parliament pursued the policy to enhance 'punishment and surveillance' on sexual abuse criminals.
Thus, in this paper, I focused on the weighing of an offense, which is the most fundamental criterion for preventing sexual abuse. First, I reviewed the regulation on punishing sexual abuse which would be the basis for the weighing of an offense. Second, based on the theoretical analysis of the weighing of an offense, I critically examined those weighing practice. Lastly, I proposed an amendment of the weighing standard for sexual abuse in relation to the current regulation.
In Chapter 2, I examined the regulation on the punishment for sexual abuse, which is a starting line for evaluating the weighing of an offense. In previous years, whenever sexual abuse had occurred, the Parliament legislated the additional punishment law by enacting a special law or by diversifying the legal elements for such abuses. However, the legislation led to confusion on its application and placed too much restriction on the court's discretion. To solve this problem, I proposed the legislation to be integrated into the Korean Criminal Law and to abrogate the provision on rape being an offense subject to complaint in order to minimize harmful effect. Moreover, I criticized the current problems of attaching electronic devices, releasing the identities of sexual offenders, and treating sex drive with medication with providing possible solutions for improvement.
In Chapter 3, through the examination of the purpose of punishment and the theory of the weighing of an offense, I clarified the relation between liability and prevention. No matter how the purpose of punishment would be, it would be basically the price of sin, namely, retribution. Hence, within the illegality of a criminal act and the scope of its liability, only the preventive purpose of weighing of an offense has legal justification.
In Chapter 4, I examined the current weighing practice and those cases after the enactment of standard. In detail, I analyzed the official statistical data from the government and the district court's decisions in 2009. First, I have examined the general characteristics of sexual abuse in recent 10 years. Moreover, based on the court's decisions, I found out that an agreement of a victim, an ex-conviction of a defendant, and a self-reflection of a defendant were the key elements for considering the weighing of an offense, irrespective of the illegality and liability of a criminal act.
Second, I examined the weighing practice after the enactment of standard. I found out that, although the average level of punishment was increased after the enactment, this did not affect people's desire on heavy punishment. However, of ninety percent of the application of weighing standard, I perceived a positive change on grounds for sentences.
In Chapter 5, I provided possible solutions on the problems of the weighing standard and proposed an amendment to the standard. One of the most critical problems of the standard would be the determination of the level of punishment based on previous practice, the absent of Starting point, and the inconsistency on the principle of prohibition of dual assessment. Possible solutions are as follow. First, the level of punishment should be reset. Second, based on 'the modified scope theory,' I have re-categorized the elements of illegality and liability into a special weighing factor and the elements of criminal offense and prevention into a general weighing factor. In addition, I have eliminated the distinction between an 'act' factor and others. Third, according to the number of special weighing factors, the upper and lower limit of the level of punishment would be adjusted in order to impose either heavy or less punishment.
Based on the solutions mentioned above, I proposed an amendment to the standard with an assertion of providing its effectiveness. Moreover, I emphasized that the expost facto control of the weighing of an offense should be made through its compulsory execution and the revision of appeal under the criminal procedure.