InterviewAfter crime, life goes on for victims at Smile Center

Baik Myung-jae, director of the Smile Center Support Headquarters, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at his office in Mapo District, Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Under Korea's Constitution, only one provision stipulates the state's obligation to provide relief to crime victims: “Citizens who have suffered harm to their life or body due to the criminal acts of others may receive relief from the state as prescribed by law.”

Since opening in 2010, Smile Center, the embodiment of that promise, has expanded to 16 centers nationwide as the country's only institution providing integrated support to victims across the full spectrum of violent crime.

“Trauma is compounded especially for crime victims because most are navigating police investigations and court proceedings for the very first time,” Baik Myung-jae, director of the Ministry of Justice-affiliated Smile Center Support Headquarters, said in an interview with The Korea Times, Wednesday. “Many cannot return to school or work, falling into financial hardship and watching their daily lives unravel.”

Smile Center also serves foreign nationals in Korea, though they account for about 1 percent of the approximately 2,000 annual users, most of them from Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand.

“This year, we plan to cover cases involving foreign nationals in Korea at the center's symposium,” Baik said, acknowledging the need to broaden services for foreign nationals. “There are so many foreign nationals who struggle to find psychological treatment institutions that can serve them.”

In 2024, Smile Center received 4,550 cases, with physical assault accounting for the largest share at 35.9 percent, followed by sexual violence at 30.1 percent and digital sex crimes at 8 percent.

Of those, digital sex crimes are a newly emerging and fastest-growing category. Not recorded separately until 2020, when 167 cases were logged, the figure climbed to 366 by 2024 — a 119 percent increase over five years.

Baik said reassuring victims of digital sex crimes, where perpetrators use deepfake technology or platforms like Telegram to extort explicit content from victims, is far harder than reassuring those of physical offenses.

“With rape or assault, retaliation by the perpetrator is one of the biggest fears among victims, but it is extremely rare — and that is something we can reassure them about. With digital crimes, the fear that images or videos will keep circulating is something we cannot resolve, and that is what makes it so frustrating,” he said.

Aside from one-on-one counseling, the center organizes group outings such as running events, baseball games and concerts. Severely traumatized victims often withdraw from society, but many find comfort with counselors and fellow victims, and these programs give them the energy to step outside.

Victims of violent crimes participate in a program making Dubai chewy cookies at the Smile Center Eastern Seoul in Songpa District in February. Captured from Smile Center website

Such programs can also help address another common burden: self-blame. Thoughts like “Why did I go there at that hour?” are common among victims, and hearing a clear affirmation from those close to them that it was not their fault can open a new path to recovery, Baik said.

Yet getting victims through the door is only half the battle. Many drop out of counseling after the first few sessions, pulled away by work, school or child care. Others, too isolated to leave home, never make it in at all.

While Smile Center outlets in eastern Seoul and Daegu will add evening and Saturday sessions this year to improve access, Baik believes remote counseling should be more actively adopted to address the problem.

“Last year, I visited the United Kingdom, where the National Health Service began offering remote services after COVID and now delivers most of its psychological treatment online. People assume it's less effective, but the data show otherwise — patients attend more consistently and complete treatment at higher rates from home,” Baik said.

For Baik, the legal framework itself must also change. “The constitutional provision on relief for crime victims is focused on physical harm. Even at the time of Sewol ferry disaster in 2014, experts knew support was needed but didn't know what to do. It was only after the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush that trauma care began to be recognized as a social necessity. Enshrining that need in law will make more substantive support possible.”

Still, Baik points to what has already changed. When the center first opened, trauma treatment in Korea was in its infancy and those who survived violent crimes beyond sexual assault had nowhere to turn. “Victims of violent crimes now have a place to process their trauma and begin to recover,” he said. “That carries very significant meaning.”