Only one of eight sexual assault victims report case to police
By Bae Ji-sook
The actual number of victims of sexual assaults in Korea is about eight times higher than that reported to the police, a state-run institute claimed Wednesday.
Embarrassment and anxiety over identification are pushing victims to struggle with the trauma for a long time on their own, said Hwang Ji-tae, a researcher at the Korean Institute of Criminology.
In his report, Hwang surveyed 5,559 women nationwide in 2008 and found that 26 had been the victims of various sexual assaults including rape and sexual harassment among others.
Hwang said the number translated to 468 per 100,000 women.
This is about eight times the 58 cases per 100,000 reported to police, suggesting the rest remain concealed.
He said the number of those who have been raped is even far higher -9.5 times- than reported.
This is the first time the actual ratio of victims has been counted, though many observers claim that the number of reported victims is just the tip of the iceberg.
"It seems that a strong sense of embarrassment has prevented women from reporting cases to the police. In order to get precise data, we need a stronger system to process rape reports,"he said.
Some claim social prejudice against rape victims is a factor.
"The seen parents preventing their daughters from reporting attacks fearing that being identified would possibly affect their future ?marriage, childbirth and social networking,"said Hwang Ji-sung, a consultant at a disabled women's rights group, in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
"The parents fear that their daughter will never get married and worry about possible revenge attacks by the assaulter. It is quite hard to break the perception and in many cases, they turn out to be true,?" she said.
Some activists claim that the current legal system "humiliates" the victims.
"In order to constitute a rape case, the victim must prove that she had 'struggled to near death' or the demeanor is considered as fornication. It means crying, fainting, screaming does not count," said Jaju, a consultant at the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center.
"From time to time they have to confront their assaulter to verify the facts. The police officers sit in front of you asking questions which the victims feel are painful to answer. That's daunting to most of the victims. If this law continues to mentally torture the women in this way, then no, we won't see any progress," she said.
bjs@koreatimes.co.kr
