Ministry of Justice Digital Sex Crime Committee Recommends Revising 'Lenient' Sentencing Conditions

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The 'Digital Sex Crime Expert Committee' under the Ministry of Justice announced the 4th recommendation on the 6th to strengthen the testimony rights of sex crime victims and revise the sentencing conditions in the Criminal Act for sex crimes.

Through this recommendation, the committee pointed out that except for a few cases that became social issues, the majority of sex crime cases are still punished mainly with fines or suspended sentences.

According to an analysis of prosecution case disposition statistics, from 2016 to 2020, the average rate of imprisonment sentences in first-instance rulings for digital sex crime cases was 9.37%. The remaining 81.34% received suspended sentences, fines, or probation.

The committee criticized that offender-centered reasons such as "sincere remorse" and "no prior criminal record" have been the main mitigating factors, resulting in "lenient punishments." It also emphasized the need to improve the Criminal Act provisions to realize reasonable sentencing that reflects the nature of sex crimes and public legal sentiment, as well as to conduct victim-centered sentencing deliberations.

To this end, it recommended that victim-related matters be substantially reflected during sentencing investigations in sex crime cases, such as pre-trial or pre-decision investigations, and that measures to prevent the spread of digital sex crime damage be practically checked. It also stated that legal grounds should be established to allow victims to express their opinions on sentencing during the trial process to ensure the substantial guarantee of victims' testimony rights as stipulated by the Constitution.

The recommendation also includes revising Article 51 of the Criminal Act, which currently focuses on victim-related sentencing factors, to explicitly incorporate restorative justice and victim-perspective elements such as the victim's age, the results and extent of the damage, whether the damage has been remedied, and the victim's opinions on punishment and sentencing.

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