Digital Sexual Crimes Against Children Double... Most Perpetrators Are Acquaintances

Convictions for Digital Sex Crimes Increase by 19.3%
Sexual Violence Against Relatives Up 13.8% Over 3 Years
Half of Sex Crime Sentences Are Probation... 62% of Digital Sex Crimes Receive Probation

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The number of sex offenders convicted of digital sex crimes against children and adolescents increased by 19.3%. Crimes involving threats to photograph or distribute sexual images of children and adolescents doubled.

On the 15th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced the results of the "Trend and Analysis of Sex Crimes Against Children and Adolescents," targeting sex offenders who were convicted in 2019 and required to register their personal information.

During this period, the number of digital sex offenders against children and adolescents rose from 223 to 266, an increase of 19.3%, while the number of victims increased from 251 to 505, a 101.2% rise. This reflects the characteristic that one offender commits crimes against multiple children and adolescents.

The total number of sex offenders was 2,753, a 14.5% decrease from the previous year, and the number of child and adolescent victims was 3,622, down 6.1% from the previous year. The number of sexual violence offenders, including rape and forced molestation, decreased by 14%, and victims decreased by 13.2%. The number of sex trade offenders decreased by 37.1%, and victims decreased by 34.8%.

2018~2019 Child and Adolescent Sexual Crime Victims by Type

The proportion by type of sex crime was ▲forced molestation (1,382 people, 50.2%) ▲rape (529 people, 19.2%) ▲quasi-rape (179 people, 6.5%) ▲sex trade (169 people, 6.1%) in that order.

Among sexual violence victims, 3 out of 10 (30.8%) were under 13 years old. This has increased by 7.2 percentage points over the past three years, highlighting the urgent need for countermeasures. Sexual violence against those under 13 was most frequently forced molestation (77.9%). Digital sex crimes such as production of sexual exploitation materials and obscenity using communication media also occurred most frequently among those aged 13 to 15.

Six out of ten sex offenders (60.4%) were acquaintances, including family and relatives. In cases of rape, the order was ▲acquaintances other than family and relatives (60.4%) ▲family and relatives (21.9%) ▲complete strangers (10.9%). For forced molestation, the order was ▲complete strangers (47.4%) ▲acquaintances other than family and relatives (40.0%) ▲family and relatives (10.2%).

Rape often occurs at the hands of acquaintances such as family or relatives, people met online, neighbors, supervisors, or employers (82.3%). Notably, sexual violence crimes against relatives have steadily increased over the past three years to 13.8%, with 56.5% of offenses continuing when the perpetrator is a relative.

Digital sex crimes are mostly committed by acquaintances who are not family or relatives. For crimes such as obscenity using communication media and production of sexual exploitation materials, acquaintances other than family and relatives accounted for 93.4% and 92.5%, respectively. Over 80% of victims were harmed by perpetrators met through internet chatting. For crimes involving filming using cameras, 62.9% of perpetrators were complete strangers.

Regarding punishment for sex crimes, suspended sentences were the most common, with over 60% of digital sex crimes receiving suspended sentences. Among those required to register personal information, 49.7% received suspended sentences, 36.3% received imprisonment, and 13.3% were fined.

Looking at sex crime types receiving imprisonment sentences, the order was ▲rape (67.9%) ▲quasi-rape (59.8%) ▲sex trade mediation and business (59.1%). The highest rates of suspended sentences were ▲sex trade (64.5%) ▲obscenity using communication media (62.5%) ▲forced molestation (57.2%).

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans to strengthen pre-monitoring through the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center to respond to child and adolescent sexual exploitation crimes and focus on understanding the actual damage through related investigations. "Digital Sex Crime Prevention Education Content" will also be distributed to frontline schools to raise awareness of the seriousness of digital sex crimes.

Minister Jeong Young-ae of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family stated, "Children and adolescents lured through digital devices or online media are suffering from digital sex crimes as well as offline rape and sex trade exploitation. Since legal grounds have been established to punish online grooming and conduct undercover investigations, we will ensure thorough institutionalization and strengthen digital sex crime prevention education to eradicate sex crimes against children and adolescents."

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