More than 4,500 stalking cases were reported to police across the country last year, but offenders were punished by law in only 1 in 10 cases. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — A new study revealed that the act of stalking is highly likely to lead to sexual assault, violence and other violent crimes.
Prof. Han Min-kyung from the Korea National Police University conducted a study of 148 decisions in criminal cases at a first instance court that include the term ‘stalking’, which showed that 35.8 percent of the decisions (53 cases) dealt with physical violence, while 28.4 percent (42 cases) involved sexual assault.
Among the cases, 12.2 percent (18 cases) involved both physical and sexual violence, indicating that more than half of all criminal cases related to stalking have led to physical violence.
Stalkers had the tendency to commit a wide range of crimes. For each court decision, the perpetrator was sentenced to an average of 4.6 penal measures.
The data also showed that 57.4 percent (85 cases) of the stalkers and the victims were former lovers or married couples.
“Victims are often reluctant to report stalkers to the police. In many cases, the act of stalking continues for an extensive period before the victims choose to call the police out of exhaustion,” Han said.
In fact, studies have shown that it takes an average of 468 days from the date of the crime until the date of pronouncement, with a median of 286 days.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
