By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The number of sex crimes here has almost doubled in the past 10 years, exceeding 13,000 in 2006 alone, a report said Sunday.
The Korean Institute for Criminology (KIC) reported that the number of sex crimes jumped to 13,573 in 2006 from 7,120 in 1997.
The increase rate was also much higher than those of other crimes in the same period.
The number of overall crimes committed per 100,000 people increased to 3,733.7 in 2006 from 3,388.3 in 1997, recording a 10.1 percent increase rate. But the increase rate in sex crimes recorded 83.4 percent in the same period as the number of sex offenses per 100,000 people soared to 27.7 in 2006 from 15.1 in 1997.
The rate of re-offenders has also increased to 14.3 percent in 2006 from 12.1 percent in 1997.
About 73 percent of adult offenders and 82 percent of the youth offenders said that they failed to control their sexual desire and committed the crimes to fulfill these needs.
But some 12 percent of adult offenders said drinking led them to commit the crimes while 9.5 percent of young people said that curiosity was the main motive.
Another survey cited in the report also suggested sex offenders' childhood has an influence on their crimes.
The survey on 658 convicts said about 12 percent of them said they had experienced sexual abuse or assault themselves.
e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr
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