The present study aimed to examine the trends of child abuse and investigate effective measures for preventing related crimes. The present research was conducted by 1) examining official statistics obtained from the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry for Health and Welfare to analyze the characteristics of child abuse, 2) analyzing the criminal records of child abusers to differentiate among various types of offenders, 3) investigating the current legal strategies for child abuse used by Korean and international criminal justice organizations, and 4) identifying the limitations of the current legal strategies and exploring more effective measures to prevent child abuse.
Major legal policies of the present study can be summarized as follows:
In the States, the concept of ‘parens patriae’ has played great role in the establishment of child protection system. In the beginning, there were no governmental officials who dealt with battered children and the juvenile courts thought that child abuse was the problem of a family, so the solution must be found in the traditional dispute resolution process. However, passing the seventies and eighties, the Federal Government has begun to realize the severity of child abuse and come to legislate the basic tools for child protection, which is entitled Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act(CAPTA). The details of the CAPTA will be summarized as follows.
In Japan, child abuse was known as ‘hidden crime’ or ‘dark rumor’ for a long time. It is hard to prosecute, and the prosecution is not always the best option for the victim. Therefore the government has tried not to see the reality as it is, it aggravates the victim’s condition in a family and a society. It was about 15 years ago that the Japanese society has concluded that the child protection system was needed for the development of suffering children and for revitalizing the relationships between family members. The Child Abuse Prevention Act employed a lot of measures that guaranteed first of all safety of the children from offending parents.
The Child Welfare Law and the Punishment Law on Child Abuse in Korea has been deeply influenced by a series of the Japanese Child Protection legislation. We are trying to punish every child abuser even though he is the guardian of the victim and to introduce mandatory reporting system which requires that every citizen has to inform the law enforcement personnel of any accidents which are related with any kinds of child abuse. Despite of some flaws in the child protection system, various governmental and nongovernmental institutions are working hard to save battered children from the on-going or imminent violence against them.