4,515 Stalking Reports Last Year... 90% 'Resolved On Site'

Number of Cases Punished: 488

On February 20, the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center criticized the police's lukewarm response to 'cyber stalking.' The photo is unrelated to specific expressions in the article / Image source=Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] It has been revealed that about 90% of stalking crimes reported to the police last year went unpunished.

According to data received on the 25th from the National Police Agency by Park Wansu, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee from the People Power Party, the number of stalking crime reports nationwide last year was 4,515 cases. Among these, only 488 cases were punished.

The reason for the low number of punishments is that until last year, there was no separate law to punish stalking crimes, so they were treated as minor offenses. In fact, 4,027 cases, accounting for 89.2% of the total reports, were mostly closed at the scene. Most cases where the police booked stalking offenders involved additional charges such as trespassing, assault, or threats. Otherwise, most cases were closed by giving warnings to the offenders at the scene or guiding the victims through the stalking complaint procedures.

Photo by Park Wansu, Office of the People Power Party lawmaker

To address the increasingly serious issue of stalking crime punishment, the Stalking Punishment Act, which allows for imprisonment of up to five years, passed the National Assembly in March. This law will take effect on October 21. Representative Park said, "The recent murder of three women in Nowon-gu also stemmed from stalking," adding, "Stalking itself causes mental and material harm to victims and has a high potential to escalate into other violent crimes, so the police must respond more strongly."

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