Incest has occurred more than once a day in Korea for the last 5.5 years.
A total of 2,089 incest crimes took place from 2006 to June in 2011, averaging 379.8 cases a year or more than once a day, according to the statistics submitted by the National Police Agency to ruling party lawmaker Kim Tae-won at the Committee of Public Administration and Security of the National Assembly.
A total of 331 incest crimes took place in 2006 and the number increased to 360 in 2007 and 373 in 2008. The number dwindled to 350 in 2009 and rebounded to 468 in 2010 and to 207 during the first half of this year.
By region, Seoul saw the largest number with 403 incests, accounting for 19.3 percent, followed by by Gyeonggi Province with 344 or 16.5 percent, Incheon 155 cases or 7.4 percent, Busan 148 or 7.1 percent and Deagu 125 or 6 percent.
During the same period, a total of 33,378 sexual crimes against female children and youths happened, averaging 6,014 a year.
The number of the sexual crimes has been on the rise every year, with 5,168 in 2006, 5,460 in 2007, 6,339 in 2008, 6,782 in 2009 and 7,367 in 2010. There were 1,962 cases during the first half of this year.
In the mean time, crimes by the elderly also increased fast, totaling 685,861 cases during the past five years and six months.
There are 101,225 cases in 2006, followed by 107,992 at 2007, 123,324 at 2008, 132,786 at 2009 and 136,238 at 2010. In 2011, 85,296 cases were reported in the January-June period this year.
As to types of the crimes by the elderly, violent crimes were the largest with 537,260, followed by theft, rape, murder and robbery.
“As social polarization becomes more severe, crimes also become more brutal,” said lawmaker Kim. “The government has to establish legal and institutional devices to prevent the crimes so as to make the society safe from the sex and violent crimes.”