Last July, there was an incident of dating violence where a drunken man assaulted his girlfriend in Seoul. The man even drove a truck and sped towards her and some citizens who tried to protect her from the truck. This kind of dating violence has reached alarming levels, and the damages have been increasing.
Dating violence refers to any violence or threats that can happen between lovers. It includes not only sexual violence but also multiple other crimes such as violent acts, excessive control, surveillance, ranting, intimidation, extortion, kidnapping and attempted murder.
According to the National Police Agency, 8,367 incidents of dating violence occurred in 2016. It means that about 21 cases of dating violence are occurring each day. In addition, it has a high rate of recidivism at 76 percent. Research shows that 8 out of 10 Korean adult men have committed dating violence more than once. Recently, the Korean Institute of Criminology published ‘The Study about Dating Violence of Adults’. In the study, 1,593(79.7 percent) of 2,000 Korean men aged 19 to 64 have controlled the behavior of their lovers, displayed psychological, emotional, or physical violence or committed sexual harassment at least once. 71.7 percent of the respondents always checked out the schedules of their lovers or prevented them from attending a meeting.
There are three main causes of dating violence. First, dating violence is not perceived as a crime. Second, the victim is recognized as a possession that can be controlled. Third, they think love is an action that routinely requires the control of their opponent, like ‘I won’t permit that dress because I love you.’
There is not even a punishment if dating violence does occur. Kim Yun-jeong, a researcher at the Law Research Institute in CBNU, said, “There is a legal framework for spousal violence and a legal system for protecting the victims from the violence. However, the current law in regard to dating violence doesn’t include enough for the rescue of the victims or the punishment of the offenders. Also, it is just regarded as a problem between couples. When dating violence happens, it is a matter of criminal law. However, when these crimes occur, the victims or people who are related with them must report them to the police to punish the offenders. Judicial action can be taken only after damage has occurred. In the case of stalking, there is no law for the crime yet. Therefore, even if you report it to the police, it can only be dealt with by imposing a penalty of less than 100,000 won under the Minor Offenses Act.”
She also said, “As time goes by, the problem of dating violence is getting worse. I think that the Minor Offenses Act and criminal law are limited in preventing damages and protecting the victims from dating violence. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a specific law to prevent dating violence effectively. Nine laws for the punishment of perpetrators of dating violence have been proposed since 1999, but they have not been passed yet. I heard that a bill for the prevention of dating violence will be drawn up soon. I hope the bill will be passed as soon as possible so that dating violence will not occur anymore.”
Last July, Pyo Chang-won, who is a member of the Minjoo Party of Korea, actually announced a proposal of a bill for preventing dating violence. It seems that it might prevent dating violence significantly. However, the most important things now are to keep in mind that certain actions can be deemed violent by the victim and to prevent those actions in advance. Dating violence is no longer an issue just between individuals and is clearly a crime.

Park Joo-hyun
jh38@cbnu.ac.kr