Ratio of male victims rise quadruple in decade

Minor victims of sexual crimes have become younger and younger with the number of male victims rapidly growing.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family reported Monday that 13,039 victims of sexual crimes averaged 12.8 years in age in an analysis by the Korean Institute of Criminology for the convicted cases between 2000 and 2010. Rape victims 14.3 years old on average, sexual harassment sufferers 10.9 years old and those forced to arrange or sell sex,16.4 years.

The age of rape victims decreased to 14.6 years on average in 2010 from 15.3 years in 2000 and that of forced sex or sex arrangement dropped to 15.8 years from 17.2 years. On the other hand, sexual harassment victims’ age rose from 10.9 years to 11.5 years.

Males of the victims accounted for 7.3 percent or 51 children and teenagers, quadruple the 1.8 percent posted in 2000. The male victims averaged 10.9 years old, lower than the 12.8 years for female victims.

In 2010, male victims accounted for still low of 5.1 percent of the total. Sexual crimes against male children or youths were counted as those of sexual harassment till March 16, from when male minors were as victims of rape, setting the legal grounds for harsher punishment against rapists of boys under 19 years of age.

As many as 13.6 percent of the total sexual crimes of minors were found to be committed by their relatives, with 7.2 percent by fathers and 6.0 percent by step fathers and 2.8 percent by others.

Meanwhile, as many as 78.2 percent of sexual attackers of minors were released on suspended sentence in 2000. The ratio has continued to drop to 28.9 percent in 2010.