Yanghyeongwi Expert Member Proposes Maximum 13-Year Prison Sentence for Digital Sex Crimes

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] It has been confirmed that the Supreme Court Sentencing Commission (Chairperson Kim Young-ran), which is in the process of establishing sentencing guidelines for digital sex crimes, has received a proposal recommending a maximum imprisonment of 13 years for crimes involving the production of child and adolescent pornography.

According to the Supreme Court on the 26th, expert members of the Sentencing Commission proposed at a meeting held on the 6th that the basic sentencing range for crimes of producing child and adolescent pornography under the Youth Protection Act (Article 11, Paragraph 1) be set at imprisonment for 4 to 8 years, which was the majority opinion.

The expert members’ review was reported and discussed at the full Sentencing Commission meeting held on the 20th.

The Sentencing Commission plans to finalize the sentencing guidelines based on the expert members’ opinions.

Analysis of sentences handed down between 2014 and 2018 by the expert members showed that the average sentence was 2 years and 6 months (30.4 months), which is half of the statutory minimum sentence of 5 years imprisonment.

In a survey conducted among 668 judges, the most common response was that the appropriate basic sentence for this crime is 3 years imprisonment (31.6%).

This reflects the lenient perception of digital sex crimes among judges and the actively considered mitigating factors favorable to defendants, such as the victim’s withdrawal of complaint, as revealed in this Sentencing Commission investigation.

Based on these analyses and survey results, the expert members considered the majority opinion of 4 to 8 years imprisonment, as well as alternatives of 5 to 9 years and 3 to 7 years imprisonment.

For the mitigating range, they agreed on recommending imprisonment from 2 years and 6 months to 6 years, and for the upper limit of the aggravated range, imprisonment of 13 years.

Although the upper limit of the aggravated range is recommended as 13 years imprisonment, the Sentencing Commission was also presented with options to impose sentences exceeding this limit in special cases, such as when the victim is under 13 years old or when the crime method is particularly egregious.

Referring to these expert opinions, the Sentencing Commission plans to prepare the sentencing guidelines at an additional meeting on the 18th of next month, then seek opinions from related agencies. Subsequently, a public hearing will be held on June 22 to gather views from various sectors.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.