Only 4-5 per cent of sexual crime suspects formally arrested each year in South Korea: Data

Seoul, Sep 21 Around 30,000 people in South Korea have been booked for sexual crimes each year for the past five years, but only a handful of them have led to formal arrests, data showed on Sunday.

Between 2020 and last year, 28,000 to 35,000 cases of sexual crimes, which involved the suspect being booked, had been reported each year, according to National Police Agency data received by Rep. Chung Choon-saeng of the minor Rebuilding Korea Party.

The sex-related crimes include rape, indecent assault, illicit filming using cameras, obscene acts through telecommunications media, and trespassing into multi-use facilities for sexual purposes, reports Yonhap news agency.

The number of those booked for such crimes came to 28,135 in 2020, 29,013 in 2021, 35,656 in 2022, 34,996 in 2023 and 31,755 last year.

Of them, the proportion of suspects for whom the police sought arrest warrants ranged from 5.35 to 6.62 per cent each year.

The issuance rate of arrest warrants was even slimmer, ranging from 4.02 to 5.1 per cent of the total number of cases booked, the data showed.

In particular, suspects of stalking crimes being formally arrested have remained at around the 3 per cent range over the cited period, despite the number of those booked on relevant charges surging from 9,895 cases in 2022 to 11,520 in 2023 and 12,677 cases last year, according to the lawmaker.

"The investigative agencies need to actively review filing an arrest warrant, and the bench also should make a decision centred on the victim," Rep. Chung said, noting that crimes involving stalking and sexual abuse have a high risk of second convictions.

--IANS

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