Society's growing crime scene

By Jay Kim

According to a comparative analysis by the Korea Development Institute, Korea's homicide rate ranked ninth amongst the 29 member countries of OECD. More specifically, the ratio stands at 2.2 homicides per every 100 thousand: a figure lower than Mexico's 13 and America's 3.8, but considerably higher than Japan or Australia. Severe offenses, categorized as "brutal crimes", especially increased by four fold in a thirty year span, from 7,259 incidents in 1980 to 27,482 in 2010. Other research shows that three out of one hundred Koreans have suffered mental and material loss due to various crimes.

A related institution subjected to improvement is the current system that seems to disregard the human rights of the victims. Perhaps due to the argument that seeks to protect the assailant's rights, the faces of criminals are usually hidden, while the rights of the victims and their families subjected to immense suffering are often neglected ― a phenomenon that occurs as a side effect arising from misinterpretation of to whom the human rights should be targeted. Do we not need to respect the citizens' right to know the criminals in order to protect our families?

Back in 1994, California passed a bill called "Proposition 36" with overwhelming citizen support. This is the "Three Strikes & You're Out" law that is also well known in Korea, which states that if you commit a similar crime three times, you are subject to prison terms no matter what.

The same rule applies even for any alcohol related crimes. In Korea, it seems alcohol induced crimes, such as drunk driving, are met with a certain degree of social tolerance due to acceptance of the "loss of memory" excuse attributed to the influence of alcohol. Alcohol may have been associated with romanticism in the past, but it has now become an element that deteriorates the social order. Korea's alcohol related culture needs to change.

An optimal way to decrease alcohol induced violent crime is to let the criminals pay the cost for their criminal conduct. Once the "Three Strikes" law was enforced in the US, crime was decreased by two thirds and the savings from the social cost arising from the crimes significantly outweighed the cost of expanding penitentiary facilities. Today, about thirty US states have embraced the law.

Public power also needs to be strengthened. Korea may be the only country in the world where citizens beat up law enforcement officers, while foreign tourists busily take pictures of such scenes. Police hospitals are said to be filled with officers wounded by violent demonstrators ― try striking police officers in the US, Europe or China and see what happens.

The death penalty still exists in Korea, but I understand that it has not been exercised for the last twenty years. The death penalty is far from reality even for the cruelest of criminals, who shamelessly reenact their crimes during investigation without a hint of remorse for their victims or their families. It is the victims and their families who live in fear of their assailant's possible release. Law enforcement officers are also often discouraged by the release of criminals whose capture took years of energy and tax money to capture.

According to criminal justice studies, the death penalty works as a deterrent for criminals from murdering, through reinforcing the fear of death as a punishment. To exercise this deterring effect, some tens of criminals are put to death every year in the U.S. Globally, 58 countries still exercise the death penalty, and support for the penalty has recently been on the rise. I believe it is time for Korea to seriously consider enforcing the death penalty to horrific criminals such as serial killers. We cannot afford to have our society deteriorate further from an increasing number of serious criminals.

Jay Kim is a former U.S. congressman. He is chairman of the Kim Chang Joon U.S.-Korea Foundation. For more information, visit Kim's website at www.jayckim.com.

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