Some time ago there was an incident where a girl name Na young was sexual assaulted by a 50-year-old man and he was only sent to jail for 12 years with the probability of getting out in 2 years. This incident and many other cases of child abuse in kindergarten have recently been hot news in Korea. Young children are defenseless against adults; if a criminal or a deranged person attacks them there is a big possibility that they won't grow up to be a proper member of society. So the need to protect the child is paramount. And to prevent such crimes to reoccur, exemplar punishment for criminals is needed. But currently Korea does not seem too much care for the victims if we go by the relatively light sentences given to. Let's see what Korea is doing wrong in protecting the victim and punishing the criminal and what types of laws should be implemented. A look at what other countries are doing is useful.
Child abuse and sexual assault lead to harsh mental condition. Physical and sexual assault that can impede a child's development and health. To prevent child abuse effectively and protect the victim, we need to upgrade the child abuse report system, prevent reoccurrence of those incidents, develop more childcare infrastructure and improve the inferior status of employees working in the infrastructure.
In Korea, due to a lot of problems, the number of child abuse and sexual assault cases is increasing. There is a lack of professional infrastructure and the inferior status of the employees working there. There is neglect of the fact that child abusers usually are from the victim's family.
The weak punishment inflicted on criminals is also a problem that does not put a stop to child abuse and sexual assault incidents. Over the past four years, child abuse and sexual assault incidents have increases 18 times in Korea. But the rate of indictment rate is only 20 percent while it is 70 percent in other industrialized countries. Also, jail time is very much shorter in Korea than elsewhere.
In the 'Na young' incident mentioned earlier, even though the victim died of her injuries was the criminal was only sentenced 12 years. So, on June 20, 2018, the government passed a law on child abuse and sexual assault that sentences parents who harass their kids to death to life of prison with a minimum incarceration or 5 years, rather than 3 years as before.
Because of parental rights, it was impossible to separate the child from their parents without the parent's agreement. With this law, it is now possible to restrict or stop parental rights. Also, to increase the reporting of child abuse, the law raises the fine for neglecting to report child abuse from three million won to five million won. Even though the government has imposed a more severe punishment, there are still people who think the punishment is too lenient compared to other countries. Lets find out how other countries deal with the punishment of child abuse and sexual assault or their laws protect the victims.
Most industrialized countries inflict strong punishment against criminals compared to Korea. America's punishment against children sexual abuse is life imprisonment or even the death penalty. It is life imprisonment in Switzerland and the death penalty in China. By contrast, in Korea, not only imprisonment is short, but also the criminal's identity is protected to respect their human rights. This makes victims nervous and can lead the criminal to recidivate. In this situation, should the human rights of the criminal be placed above the victim’s rights?
The ways to protect the victims is also a huge problem in Korea compared to other countries. America is using a 24-hour emergency call system to report child abuse and sexual assault. Professional checks children separated from their violent parents at least once every six months. Australia has a 24-hour emergency call system as well. The absence of these mechanisms suggests Korea tends to neglect the victim to protect the criminal's human rights.
The victim of child abuse and sexual assault is likely to need long-term special care. At the same time, harsher punishment needs to be imposed on the attacker. Korea has a very weak system to protect the victim and there is no harsh punishment against the criminal compared to other countries. This can prevent a child from growing to be a good member of society. To avoid this situation we need to think about laws that should be enacted to protect the victim and punish the attacker and, ultimately, how the society can protect children.