Harsher punishment urged for pedophiles

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

By Lee Hyo-sik

Most citizens think that sex offenders preying on minors should be subject to harsher punishment than murderers, a survey by the Supreme Court showed Tuesday.

It said the finding reflects the growing public awareness of child sex abuse, following last year’s release of a film based on a true story about sexual assaults against disabled students by teachers at a Gwangju school. In a joint survey of 1,000 citizens and 900 prosecutors, lawyers and other legal experts, 26.1 percent said those sexually assaulting children under 13 should face more severe penalties than murderers. About 38 percent said both sex offenders and murderers should be subject to the same level of punishment.

“Survey results indicate that people turned less tolerant toward sexual assaulters victimizing minors, following a series of high-profile rape cases involving child victims,” a Supreme Court official said. “Additionally, the movie titled “Dogani,” or “The Crucible,” released in September last year highlighted the severity of child sex abuse.”

The film featured sexual assaults against hearing-impaired children by teachers and school staff at the Gwangju Inhwa School for years since 2000, causing public uproar and forcing law enforcement authorities to take belated legal action against the perpetuators. According to the survey, 81.1 percent of legal professionals said the court should hand out a suspended sentence to sex offenders assaulting adults if they reach a civil settlement with their victims.

On the other hand, 58.2 percent of surveyed citizens said sex offenders should be put behind bars regardless of a settlement with victims or not.
The survey also showed that nearly 50 percent of citizens think men who rape step-daughters or others distantly related by blood should face imprisonment of over seven years. But 42.1 percent of legal professionals said less than three years in jail would be appropriate for such criminals.

The Supreme Court plans to reflect the survey results in its soon-to-be-revised sentencing guidelines for sex offenses, physical assaults and other legal violations. The nation’s top court will make a final decision on the details of the sentencing guidelines at a policy-setting meeting on Jan. 30.

Source: Koreatimes

Comments

[queencleopatra.livejournal.com]

I don't think they deserve worse treatment than murderers, but if their case is proven, they should be chemically castrated, with chemical castration they wouldn't even think about children or sex at all. This needs to be considered as well as perhaps between 5-10 years in Jail, but they should have to take the CC for life. LIFE.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

Chemical castration doesn't always work actually, it has "physical" effect but apparently it doesn't deal with the urge to rape.
Recently there was a documentary about how chemical castration is used in Canada. And some inmate said he didn't want to be released because even if he was working on his problem and couldn't abuse child "by himself" he still feel the urge to rape them and already found an alternative which was to use object.
So even if he personally couldn't abuse the child he said that he'd find a way and that's why he didn't want to be released.

[queencleopatra.livejournal.com]

Jesus! I didn't know that! Thanks for the information. It's very hard to know how to treat these people. :/

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to see that he's aware that what he's doing is wrong but can't seem to help himself..

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

Actually this part of the documentary was almost "sad" cause he seemed aware of his "mistakes", thanks to all the help he got from psychiatrist he was able to say "this is wrong, I shouldn't do it" and yet it looks like he couldn't help himself which is why he didn't ask for an early released or anything.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

It's good that he is able to acknowledge it and does what he feels is necessary to prevent a recurrence! I've heard too many stories of criminals getting released and continuing what they were put into jail for in the first place..

[black-silver.livejournal.com]

D: oh my lord

[angel-9-lives.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the doc., but I've always heard the same thing. It's the whole 'where there's a will, there's a way':\

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

Nice reading the article here

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

"7 years" "3 years" are you fucking kidding me ? Anyways even if they make the punishments longer than murderers they could still get away with almost nothing if they were famous and had money, since you can kill someone and get released after a year because you're a famous actor and payed.

[umbrella-smile.livejournal.com]

Except that wouldn't work, because much like rape, it is more about control than sex.

[lolwut321.livejournal.com]

Idk, this might seem weird, but I think I'm the only one who kind of feels bad for pedophiles.

It must suck knowing that your lifestyle is almost impossible to be accepted in society. It must suck knowing that you can never be truly happy with what you're attracted to. I mean, it's not like they choose who they are attracted to you know? Some people are attracted to the opposite sex, others are attracted to the same sex. It just so happens that they are attracted to people that are young. Its not like people can help who they are attracted to. They just are. That's why I feel bad when people just automatically assume that anyone who's a pedophile should automatically be punished or there's automatically something wrong with them. I mean, it wouldn't be right to say for people who are attracted to the same sex, right?

Now child molesters/rapists on the other hand, are different. They FORCE themselves or the other person to do things, and take advantage of them, which is never right.

Just my opinion :).

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

While I may understand your thinking regarding "pedophile" (understand doesn't mean that I agree, just to be clear) I'm not sure this is the right post to talk about it.
Some people might get your opinion wrong.

[lolwut321.livejournal.com]

Thanks for at least thinking about it. I probably wouldn't have read a post that long if I saw something like that in here LOL.

But yeah, you're right. I don't think this is the proper place to talk about this. Do you want me to just delete it?

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

That is up to you.
You express your opinion and as far as I can see no one is offended by it so I don't see anything wrong.

[umbrella-smile.livejournal.com]

They have much deeper seeded issues that just being attracted to children, and comparing it to being gay or straight is kind of ridiculous.

[mandyyy.livejournal.com]

So many things wrong with this article. So if there wasn't high profile cases where people from other countries are looking at you going, "What the fuck, Korea.. and I thought my country was whack", you would just continue to let your citizens rape and destroy lives. Sorry bout your luck, but not talking about it or ignoring the issue does not make it go away.

"According to the survey, 81.1 percent of legal professionals said the court should hand out a suspended sentence to sex offenders assaulting adults if they reach a civil settlement with their victims."

So basically, you want to turn the female population into really high dollar hookers? As long as he says sorry and has the money to pay her off, then it's ok? I'm curious to see how many serial rapists there are in Korea. I mean as long as he said sorry, I guess we're all good then.

"The survey also showed that nearly 50 percent of citizens think men who rape step-daughters or others distantly related by blood should face imprisonment of over seven years. But 42.1 percent of legal professionals said less than three years in jail would be appropriate for such criminals."

Are you fucking kidding me?! Less than three years? So because he's older, should know better, it's ok because it's in the family? Korea you need to get over this hierarchical society that you've been clinging to; it's not working for you anymore. Just because someone is older does not mean they are wiser or even decent a human being for that matter.

Fix your shit, Korea. Seriously.. it's becoming ridiculous.

[yami-no-hoshi.livejournal.com]

I saw the Crucible (it was called Silenced over here). It really destroyed me. The sentences those disgusting rapists got were so lax, they were barely even sentences.