Prosecutor's Office Applies Relaxed Criteria for Forced Molestation Charges... Orders Strict Response to Sexual Violence Offenders
The Supreme Prosecutors' Office recently instructed local prosecutors' offices to strictly respond to sexual violence offenders by actively applying the relaxed requirements for establishing the crime of forcible molestation as determined by the Supreme Court's full bench ruling.
On the 26th, the Criminal Department of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Park Se-hyun) announced, "We have instructed local prosecutors' offices nationwide to strictly respond to sexual violence offenders by actively applying the intent and content of the Supreme Court full bench ruling recently delivered regarding the interpretation criteria of assault or intimidation in the crime of forcible molestation."
On the 21st, the Supreme Court, through a full bench ruling, changed the previous precedent which required that assault or intimidation, a requirement for establishing the crime of forcible molestation, be "to the extent that it makes resistance difficult for the other party," and newly defined it as ▲ unlawfully exercising physical force on the other party's body or ▲ notifying harm to the extent that it can cause fear in the other party.
The previous standard, maintained since 1983, was a remnant of old notions that classified forcible molestation as a "crime related to chastity," demanding victims to uphold chastity, and was deemed no longer maintainable under the current law interpretation that protects "individual sexual self-determination rights" as the protected legal interest.
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Before this full bench ruling was delivered, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office stated that prosecutors, considering the protected legal interest of the crime of forcible molestation and changes in social awareness of sexual violence crimes, had been interpreting the meaning of "to the extent that it makes resistance difficult for the other party" more broadly in practice, applying the crime of forcible molestation in cases where unlawful physical force was exercised against the will of the other party or harm causing fear was notified to the other party, and that there were many lower court cases accepting this and sentencing guilty verdicts.
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