Public Demand for Harsher Punishment on Violent Crimes Against Children Rises
Rep. Itaegyu Proposes New Law Establishing and Increasing Penalties for Murder of Descendants
Mr. A, who was urgently arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife and two sons, is being escorted to the detention center at Gwangmyeong Police Station in Gyeonggi Province on the afternoon of the 26th. Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lee Gyehwa] Three people, including a mother and two teenage children, were found dead in an apartment in Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi Province. According to the Gwangmyeong Police Station on the 26th, Mr. A, a man in his 40s who was urgently arrested on suspicion of murder, is presumed to have killed his wife in her 40s and two teenage sons at their home the previous afternoon. At the time, Mr. A reported to 119, saying, "I came home from going out and found the children dead." After being arrested, Mr. A confessed to the crime and reportedly stated, "I often quarreled recently over divorce issues with my wife."
Recently, as 'filicide (cases where parents kill their children)' has occurred repeatedly, calls to increase the severity of punishment are growing louder. Each time such incidents occur, public opinion intensifies that severe punishment should be imposed for violent crimes against children, but social discussions remain at a standstill.
The number of parents killing their children is on the rise. According to the Child Rights Protection Agency on the 27th, including 'extreme choices after killing children' as a cause of death from child abuse, the numbers have increased from 7 in 2018, 9 in 2019, to 12 in 2020. This includes cases where the parents also took extreme measures themselves; if cases where parents did not die but killed their children are included, it is estimated that even more children have died at the hands of their parents.
Under current law, filicide is punished as general murder with the death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for five years or more. In cases of parricide, even if the court reduces the sentence to the maximum extent, probation cannot be granted, but filicide, classified as general murder, sometimes receives lighter sentences such as probation. According to Segye Ilbo, an analysis of 15 filicide and 15 parricide cases judged from 2020 to last month showed that five cases received probation, and among the ten imprisonment sentences, six were for five years or less, accounting for more than half.
There are no provisions in the Criminal Act that impose aggravated punishment for crimes against descendants. While there are crimes such as infanticide and infant abandonment, their sentences are lighter than general murder. The problem is that filicide is treated as a general murder case without separate aggravated punishment provisions, so accurate statistics on how often incidents like this occur annually are not available.
In contrast, parricide is subject to aggravated punishment with the death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for seven years or more. All parricide cases resulted in actual imprisonment. Only three cases received sentences under ten years, while the remaining twelve cases were sentenced to ten years or more. The breakdown is: △ one case under five years △ two cases between five and under ten years △ five cases between ten and under fifteen years △ seven cases over fifteen years. Current law has separate provisions for aggravated punishment of crimes against ascendants for almost all types of violent crimes such as injury, assault, abandonment, abuse, arrest, confinement, and threats. This is intended to strictly punish the heinous crime of killing parents or grandparents.
Because of this, Representative Lee Taegyu of the People Power Party introduced a partial amendment to the Criminal Act in July to establish the crime of killing a minor direct descendant and to impose aggravated punishment equivalent to parricide, heavier than general murder. Representative Lee stated, "With this legal amendment, the dignity of the right to life of minor direct descendants will be emphasized, and it is expected to sound an alarm against the mistaken belief that the right to life of young children belongs to their parents."
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