3 in 10 sex offenders given reprieves

Three in 10 defendants convicted of sexual violence in Korea receive a commutation of their prison sentence in trials at appellate courts, data from the Seoul Women Lawyers Association showed Monday.

According to the data, the appeals courts commuted the terms of 299 (or 31.8 percent) out of 939 sexual crime case rulings in district courts, from January 2013 to June 2014.

Among the 299 commutations, 59.5 percent (178 cases) were reduced to jail terms ranging between six months and two years, 30.4 percent (91) to terms of between two and five years and 5.3 percent (16) to terms of under six months.

Further, terms for 36.1 percent (108) of the 299 cases were changed from prison terms to stays of execution.

The association said that the court has been relatively lukewarm toward sexual offense crimes, stressing that “sentences should be sterner for crimes of high frequency.”

According to an analysis of recent court rulings on sex offenders by Rep. Woo Yoon-keun of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, the acquittal rate reached 2.3 percent, significantly higher than the average of 1.4 percent for all crimes.

According to Woo, the data showed that “out of convicted sex offenders, only 24 percent got jail terms, 33 percent were placed on probation and 14.3 percent were fined.”

According to a separate report by the Korean Women’s Development Institute, out of 18,157 sexual attacks reported in 2009, only 41.1 percent progressed to the stage of indictment by the prosecution.

The figure is a steep drop from 50.3 percent in 1999. “The decrease in indictments shows that the court and the prosecution have become more lenient toward sex offenders,” the report said.

The institute also said a large portion of culprits were found to have been placed under loose oversight after serving their time.

According to Education Ministry data submitted to the ruling Saenuri Party, 45 teachers committed sex crimes, including sexual harassment of minors and buying sex, over the past few years.

The data showed that about 22 percent of them were given a heavy penalty that kept them out of classrooms for up to five years. But the others received a mild punishment such as a pay cut or short-term suspension.

A Saenuri lawmaker pointed out that some of them still teach in classrooms and are suspected of repeated sex crimes.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)