A senior eats lunch alone at a fast-food restaurant in Seoul on Jul. 11, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Senior harassment has increased for five consecutive years, largely due to the pandemic and changes in family composition, a government report showed Thursday.
There were 19,552 suspected cases of senior harassment reported last year, 34.8 percent of which were confirmed as actual instances of harassment, according to the report from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The number of reported cases increased from 15,482 in 2018 to 19,391 in 2021 and further to 19,552 in 2022.
Among them, the number of cases confirmed as actual instances of harassment also increased from 5,188 to 6,807 over the same period.
There were 817 secondary harassment cases last year, marking a 10.6 percent increase from the previous year and a 67.4 percent increase compared to 2018.
Among all the harassment cases, 2,615 were committed by a spouse, accounting for 34.9 percent of all harassment cases, with 87.8 percent of cases committed by the husband and 12.2 percent by the wife.
Until 2020, the majority of harassment cases were committed by sons, but in 2021, spouses became the most common perpetrators.
The ministry reported that the proportion of senior couple households reached 58.4 percent in 2020, a significant increase from 11.3 percent in 2008.
During the same period, the percentage of households in which seniors live with their children dropped from 20.1 percent to 8.3 percent.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
