When justice systems fail to protect women

Women's rights groups rally outside Seoul Central District Court, Nov. 29, calling for Judge Oh Deok-sik to step down for his insensitivity to sexual violence victims. / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon

K-pop idol's death questions courts' ability to handle gender-related crimes

By Lee Suh-yoon

It is not easy for a sexual violence victim to decide to bring their case to the court and continue a legal battle.

They have to be reminded of the horrible incident numerous times during hearings, face countersuits from the offenders and are often subjected to slutshaming in social circles.

But victims choose to go through the legal battle because they believe the judiciary will bring justice and give perpetrators the punishment that is due.

However, in Korea the reality is that many victims are frustrated with the conservative and male-dominated judiciary's decisions that are very lenient toward male sex-crime offenders, and in some case the court case itself causes the victims more emotional damage.

When Goo Ha-ra, former member of K-pop girl group Kara, took her life last month, many who mourned her death directed their anger not only at her ex-boyfriend ― who blackmailed Goo with revenge porn ― but the judge who acquitted him.

Since last year, the 28-year-old singer and actress had been fighting a court battle with Choi Jong-bum, a hairdresser who assaulted Goo and threatened to release sexually explicit videos taken of her while the two were dating.

In August, Judge Oh Deok-sik sentenced Choi to an 18-month prison term suspended for three years for assault and other charges. Oh, however, acquitted Choi of the main accusation of filming sexually explicit footage of Goo without consent, a crime punishable by up to five years in jail. This was because Goo did not make it clear she objected to the filming, Oh explained.

The ruling wasn't the only thing that rattled Goo and her supporters. Despite Goo's objection, Judge Oh viewed the sex clip in question in its entirety. When delivering the verdict to a courtroom with at least 20 members of the general public, Oh read out specific locations and frequency of the couple's sexual relations ― supposedly relevant information ― to "explain" his decision to acquit Choi of the illegal filming charges.

Stricken by the news of Goo's death, women's rights groups publicly denounced Judge Oh and what they called a "gender-biased judiciary" in front of Seoul Central District Court last Friday.

"There is an undeniable element of societal responsibility for Goo's death, and part of it lies with the judiciary," Kim Ji-yoon, a Green Party policy head, told reporters.

Judge Oh has been criticized for his handling of similar cases this year. Last month, he handed down a suspended prison term to a photographer who took "upskirt" photos of wedding guests for three years by installing spy cams on the floor.

Judge Oh is not an outlier. The justice system has repeatedly shown leniency to recorders voyeur videos and perpetrators of crimes against women, making it a subject of criticism during the #MeToo movement and mass "anti-spycam" rallies last year.

One of the most publicized cases this year was an appeals ruling by the Uijeongbu District Court in October, which acquitted a man caught filming the lower body of a woman wearing leggings on a bus.

The court at the time said the man did not commit sexual harassment because leggings constitute casual wear. What was more surprising is that the photo of the woman's lower half taken without her consent was printed in the written verdict as part of "case records."

Such cases extend beyond voyeurism crimes. In July, a male university student who beat his girlfriend to death received a suspended jail term after the judge deemed the act to be "accidental." Around the same time, the court acquitted an elementary school vice principal who sexually harassed a female taxi driver in her 60s, saying the victim "did not seem to have felt too big a shock or sexual humiliation due to her age and social experience."

Seo Seung-hui, head of the Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Center (KCSVRC), says she has seen many victims lose in court because of arbitrary judgment ― usually based on the judge's opinion the victim "did not resist with enough force" to be recognized as a victim.

Seo believes such rulings will continue unless more women are put on the bench. Currently, 30 percent of judges are women, according to figures from February. The percentage is much smaller for senior judges who lead the bench ― 20 percent for lower courts and 4 percent for high courts. Three out of 13 Supreme Court justices are women.

"Most (senior) judges are men, with a life that has zero possibility of being secretly filmed for sexual exploitation," Seo said in a phone interview. "When the bench is filled with middle-aged men who lack gender sensitivity, it creates a culture where even female judges make conservative rulings on gender crimes."

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