[2020 National Audit] Up to 40% Difference... Child Abuse Judgments Vary by Regional Institutions

Arbitrary Judgment Inevitable, Continuous Improvement Needed

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] There have been calls for clear guidelines as the rate at which reported child abuse cases are actually judged as 'child abuse' and acted upon varies significantly across institutions.

On the 8th, an analysis of data received from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Child Rights Protection Agency by Rep. Jeong Chunsuk of the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly, Democratic Party of Korea, showed that last year, 41,389 child abuse cases were reported to 67 regional Child Protection Agencies nationwide, of which 30,045 cases (72.6%) were judged as child abuse.

The problem was that the judgment rates varied greatly depending on the regional Child Protection Agency. Among nine Child Protection Agencies in Seoul, only 2,178 cases (60.7%) out of 3,590 reports were judged as child abuse. In contrast, three agencies located in Gyeongnam judged 1,300 cases (82.6%) out of 1,573 reports as child abuse.

In the case of the Pyeongtaek Child Protection Agency in Gyeonggi-do, 355 cases (89%) out of 399 reports were judged as child abuse, whereas the Seoul Child Protection Agency judged only 260 cases (46.1%) out of 564 reports as child abuse.

Jeong Chunsuk, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea Photo by Yonhap News

To overcome this reality, from this month, the 'Case Expert Committee' installed at Child Protection Agencies has been integrated into the Korea Child Rights Protection Agency to provide consultation, and the final decision is entrusted to the Child Welfare Deliberation Committee under local governments, thereby strengthening the system. However, another problem has emerged. Not only must deliberations be held for protection requests related to separated protective measures and appointment of child guardians, but also for the newly added function of child abuse judgment. Since there is no mandatory regulation to hold these meetings, the golden time in urgent situations may be missed.

Rep. Jeong pointed out, "The Ministry of Health and Welfare has recently developed and distributed standards for judging child abuse and is preparing improvement measures, but since subjective judgment by officials is inevitable, it needs to be supplemented." He also said, "Because child abuse reports often require prompt judgment and action, it is necessary to consider whether unifying the decision-making body into a single entity is the best approach."

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