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| Kim Geun-sik / Korea Times file |
By Jun Ji-hye
Whether chemical castration should be ordered as punishment on more child sex offenders is emerging as a key issue in legal circles, after the prosecution recently requested a court to order such a penalty for serial rapist Kim Geun-sik.
These discussions reflect long-standing concerns that punishment ordered on child sex offenders in the past did not match their brutal crimes and that existing systems to monitor released offenders have insufficiently reduced repeat offenses.
Chemical castration involves administering medication ― either via injection or tablets ― to repress sexual interest.
The related law came into effect in 2011 in Korea amid public outcry over a series of child rapists reoffending following their release.
Kim had served 15 years in prison for raping 11 minors in Seoul and its surrounding areas from May to September of 2006.
The 55-year-old was supposed to be released from prison in October last year. Just before his release, Kim was arrested again. Investigators found that he was the assailant in an unsolved case in which a 13-year-old girl was molested in September of 2006.
During a second trial last Friday, the prosecution requested a district court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, to order chemical castration as punishment on Kim, referring to the results of his psychiatric evaluation.
Several experts also raised the need for the enforcement of chemical castration on Kim, including Pyo Chang-won, a renowned criminal profiler and former lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).
"Kim will definitely commit the crime again as his previous crimes were intentional and habitual," Pyo said.
Oh Eun-young, a renowned child psychiatrist and television personality, also said during her radio appearance, "Simply detaining pedophiles cannot change anything about their sexual desire. The best way would be offering both drug and psychotherapy treatments for a long period of time."
Kim's next trial is scheduled on March 3.
Similarly, calls for the enforcement of chemical castration on child sex offenders grew in December of 2020 when Cho Doo-soon, one of Korea's most notorious child rapists, was released from prison.
But it could not be enforced on Cho as he received his final ruling in the Supreme Court in 2009, before the law came into effect and did not consent. In this case, chemical castration can be enforced only when law enforcement officers get one's consent.
This reignited debates about the need for amending the law so that chemical castration can be retroactively applied for sex offenders with final rulings before 2011.
A related bill is already pending at the National Assembly. Rep. Ki Dong-min of the DPK submitted the bill in November last year, aiming at amending the law so that chemical castration can be enforced upon sex offenders who had already been released from prison.
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