Supplementing Legal Blind Spots... Supporting Crime Victims' Return to Daily Life
Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Shin Sang-jin) announced on the 10th that it provided injury treatment expenses to crime victims within the city who were excluded from the support under the Crime Victim Protection Act and thus left in a blind spot.
This is the first case of support since the city enacted the "Ordinance on Medical Expense Support for Victims of Violent Crimes Including Crimes with Abnormal Motives." In May, the city paid approximately 2 million KRW in injury treatment expenses last month to a woman in her 60s who suffered injury from family violence.
Currently, the Ministry of Justice operates the crime victim support system jointly through the Prosecutor's Office and the Crime Victim Support Center, but treatment expenses for crimes occurring within families or indirect crime victims are excluded from support.
Accordingly, the city applied the "costs recognized by the mayor" clause specified in the ordinance on medical expense support for victims of violent crimes to provide injury treatment expenses to the victim. The recipient was selected based on recommendations from a police case meeting, which identified individuals who urgently needed support but were excluded from existing support systems.
Following an abnormal motive crime that occurred at Seohyeon Station in August last year, the city became the first basic local government to enact a related ordinance in December of the same year. Considering the difficulty of immediately identifying abnormal motive crimes, the city expanded the scope of crimes eligible for victim support to include all violent crimes that threaten life and physical safety, such as injury and assault.
A Seongnam City official stated, “We will continue to actively identify victims in need of support and help crime victims return to their daily lives quickly.”
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