Yanghyeong Research Association: "Do Not Consider Withdrawal of Complaint as a Mitigating Factor in Child Abuse Cases"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] There has been a claim that even if the victim expresses a desire not to punish in order to strengthen the punishment for child abuse crimes, it should not be considered as a mitigating factor.

On the 21st, the Sentencing Research Committee under the Supreme Court Sentencing Commission held the 6th symposium on the theme of "Child Abuse Crimes and Sentencing." The symposium was organized to improve the current situation where the number of child abuse cases is increasing while the rate of criminal punishment is decreasing. In fact, the number of reported child abuse cases surged more than twofold from 19,203 in 2015 to 41,389 in 2019, whereas the rate of criminal punishment relative to the number of cases processed was only 3.3% (361 cases).

On this day, Park Eun-jung, Director of the Child Abuse Response Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, stated, "The refusal to punish, which is a mitigating factor in ordinary crimes, should not be applied to child abuse crimes." This is due to concerns that the perpetrators of child abuse crimes are very likely to be the child's parents, and in such cases, relatives of the child may pressure the victimized child to express a refusal to punish.

Judge Kim Se-jong of the Seoul High Court also suggested that "it is necessary to block the risk of the victim child's parents, etc., fabricating a refusal to punish," and proposed strengthening the requirements for recognizing a refusal to punish to the level applied in sex crimes and prostitution crimes.

There was also an argument that it is reasonable to remove this from the special mitigating factors. Attorney Heo Yong from the law firm Inui stated, "Considering the severity of the harm and the risk of distortion of the victim child's intention, it is not enough to just strengthen the requirements for recognizing a refusal to punish."

Additionally, Park Hyun-joo, Chief Prosecutor at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, pointed out that crimes against children under six years old who are not yet in school should be treated as special aggravating factors rather than general aggravating factors. Except for child abuse causing serious injury or death, crimes against children do not currently include preschool children as an aggravating factor.

Meanwhile, the Sentencing Commission plans to reflect the contents of this symposium in the revision of sentencing guidelines for child abuse crimes to be conducted this year.

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