Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
Intimate partners account for half of violence cases against women: study
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By Kwak Yeon-soo
More than half of women who sought help after experiencing violence said their offenders were either their spouses or intimate partners, according to a report, Friday.
Korea Women’s Hot Line, a nonprofit organization providing support to victims of sexual or domestic violence, reported 5,981 cases across 21 counseling centers in 2023.
Approximately 50.8 percent of these were perpetrated by spouses (40.6 percent) or romantic partners (10.2 percent). This was followed by incidents involving family members (17.5 percent), coworkers (8.3 percent), neighbors (3.4 percent), strangers met online (3.1 percent) and schoolmates (2.8 percent).
This figure indicates that the majority of cases of violence against women occur within close relationships, where offenders frequently exert both physical and psychological aggression toward their victim.
Among all types of violence against women (multiple responses were allowed), domestic violence was the most common at 57.9 percent, followed by sexual violence at 45.5 percent, stalking at 10.5 percent, dating violence at 10.1 percent, workplace sexual harassment at 7.2 percent, and online sexual harassment at 3.1 percent.
"The government budget to support victims of such violence has been reduced. Additionally, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which oversees related policies, has a vacant ministerial position as part of steps to abolish the ministry,” an official at the Korea Women’s Hot Line said. “We need to come up with urgent, fundamental measures to end violence against women.”