The recent murder of a Korean woman in Gangnam is being used to bring attention to the issue of violent crime against women. Now Vice News has jumped on the bandwagon to publish an article criticizing a culture that allows violent crimes against women in South Korea to occur:
ourners march during a rally on Saturday to pay tribute to a South Korean woman who was stabbed to death near Gangnam Station in Seoul. [AP/NEWSIS]
For years now, South Korea has been trying to build a legal system to deal with the problem. As Dr Kyungja Jung, of the University of Technology Sydney told me, the country has come far since the days when police themselves would sexually assault detained female activists.”There has been tremendous changes in legislation, services, and programs for the victims,” she said.
Neither is South Korea the only country struggling with the issue. All countries experience some baseline level of sexism and the latest numbers from the World Health Organisation suggest 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced sexual violence.
But South Korea, a country with one of the most influential youth cultures in Asia, is also a society with a deep gender inequality according to the World Economic Forum which ranks the nation 117 out of 142, putting it alongside Qatar and Nigeria.
This is a subject Koreans do not like to discuss, partly because defamation laws in the country are strong, making criticism of the government, police, or major corporations dangerous. Many of those I contacted over the last two weeks were afraid to talk for fear of a lawsuit, though few would say so outright.
When they responded, they were often “too busy.” One person who worked in a frontline support service for rape victims told someone who had contacted them on my behalf: “This is a sensitive issue and I am Korean.”
Those more willing to speak out were young activists. One male activist who worked on a team which monitored rapists on Sora.net told me that in 1995, seven out of 10 women were victims of violent crimes, but that number has increased to nine out of 10. Because I can’t speak Korean, I cannot easily verify those numbers, but I asked him why he thought that was. [Vice News]
You can read much more at the link, but in my opinion this article is poor journalism which this last excerpted paragraph is an example of. The writer admits that he can’t verify the statistic that 9 out of 10 women in South Korea were victims of violent crimes, but went ahead and published it anyway. If 90% of the women in Korea are victims of violent crime there would be a political revolution to improve public safety. The President is a woman so does anyone think she would stand for such a thing?
Poor Example
A random murder by a mentally deranged homeless person that had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals does not suddenly make South Korea a haven for violent crime against women. Speaking of this murderer the article made no mention that he was schizophrenic and instead led readers to believe he simply killed the woman because he hated women. This narrative is about as honest as the “gentle giant” narrative used by the US media after the Michael Brown shooting.
As far as some of the other examples used in the article such as the Australian woman interviewed and the man acquitted of rape because he had a curved man part I would like to hear the other side of the story because often these stories are never as simple as advocates claim them to be. With that all said the premise that South Korea has a problem investigating sexual assault cases I think is true, I just hate tabloid journalism being used to make this point.
Past Investigations
In the past South Korean authorities were just incompetent with dealing with violent crime against women. I can remember when a US soldier was raped shortly after she arrived at Incheon International Airport and the rapist was acquitted because the soldier did not resist enough. In another case the sentencing for rape was so light that whether the suspect committed robbery as was the focus of the case because it had more jail time. Then there is this case of a foreign English teacher who was brutally raped and forced to suffer police incompetence afterwards. Finally who can forget the Miryang Gang Rape case which was just a travesty.
I do have to admit that things have gotten better in recent years such as South Korea finally barring teachers convicted of sex crimes of getting their jobs back. Even the ROK military has launched a campaign to crackdown on sexual assault and harassment within their ranks which they have long been known for. What do the statistics say? Well they say arrests for rape have skyrocketed over the last decade.
It is important to keep in mind that just because arrests are up this does not necessarily mean that rape is up. It can be argued that due to awareness campaigns in South Korea women are now more likely to report rape and the police are taking the allegations more seriously.
How do these statistics stack up against the United States? With a population of 51 million people in South Korea and 20,045 rape arrests in 2014 this has a occurence rate of 1 in 2,544 people. The Department of Justice reported 284,350 rapes in the United States in 2014 and with a population of 318 million this comes out to an occurrence rate of 1 in 1,118 people. This is higher than South Korea, but keep in mind difference in statistic compilation does make comparisons difficult, but does give an indication that rapes are lower in South Korea than the US.
Conclusion
Today I think the problem is mostly how Korean police look differently at alcohol related sexual assaults than other countries. If Korea is like the US, the vast majority of rape cases are probably he said/she said cases that involve alcohol. When alcohol is involved South Korean authorities are well known for showing more leniency towards perpetrators though in recent years there has been some changes to the law. In the United States alcohol is not considered the mitigating factor for committing crime like it is in South Korea. In fact at least in the US military alcohol has been used as factor to over prosecute people for sexual assault.
This is an area I think women in Korea need to be aware of that a date rape type of scenario after a night of drinking alcohol, it is likely to be more difficult to get Korean authorities to vigorously investigate and prosecute the perpetrator. So looking at the facts South Korea does not necessarily have a violent crime problem against women, it just has a different perspective in regards to how vigorously it will prosecute these crimes when it involves alcohol. This perspective appears to be slowly changing with the increased rape arrests and I would not be surprised if arrests continue to increase in the coming years as societal attitudes towards the crime continue to change.
This murder case in Hawaii has just gotten a whole lot weirder. Obviously this NCO has some serious sexual issues if he is having affairs, watching child porn and prostituting himself to other men:
An Army medic charged with conspiring with his lover to kill his wife in Hawaii will be court-martialed for child pornography and prostitution charges that surfaced while investigating the killing.
Sgt. Michael Walker’s general court-martial is set for June 20 and June 21 at Wheeler Army Airfield on Oahu, said Jim Guzior, spokesman for Tripler Army Medical Center, where Walker has been assigned since 2013. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for next week.
Walker has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in civilian court in the killing of Catherine Walker, who was found stabbed to death in November 2014 in the military housing the couple shared in Honolulu.
Army prosecutors revealed new allegations during a military judicial hearing in March, where they said Michael Walker is accused of possessing and viewing child pornography and receiving money in exchange for sex with men. [Stars & Stripes]
It might help to track this guy down if a picture of what he looked like was available:
A U.S. soldier under military investigation has disappeared from a base near the border with North Korea, a spokesman said Thursday.
The missing soldier is being investigated for a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said Lt. Col. Richard Hyde, a 2nd Infantry Division spokesman. South Korean police said the soldier had been scheduled to face a court-martial Wednesday, but the military declined to confirm that or provide details about the charges.
The soldier, who is in his 20s, is not wanted for a violent crime, Hyde said.
“We do not believe that he is armed or dangerous,” he said. “He is believed to be in Seoul.” [Stars & Stripes]
Here is another story of a senior military leader in big trouble. This time Colonel David Cockrum the former commander of the 51st Medical Group on Osan Airbase was charged with sexually assaulting two male servicemembers, but was found not guilty of those charges, but was instead found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer for fraternizing with the male servicemembers:
An Air Force colonel with nearly 20 years of service was found not guilty of sexual assault during his court-martial last week.
Col. David Cockrum, former commander of the 51st Medical Group at Osan Air Base, South Korea, was found not guilty of two specifications of sexual assault and one specification of abusive sexual contact in violation of Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Pacific Air Forces spokesman Col. David Honchul told Air Force Times on Tuesday.
Cockrum was found guilty of one charge of conduct unbecoming an officer. According to court documents, he faced that charge because he did “knowingly fraternize with enlisted persons, on terms of military equality … such conduct being to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces,” between July 2014 and March 2015.
The military judge sentenced him to 30 days confinement, forfeiture of $5,000 pay per month for eight months ($40,000 total), and a reprimand, Honchul said. [Air Force Times]
This has to horrible news to the residents of this apartment who have been using the tap water contaminated with a decomposed corpse:
A body was found in a water tank on the roof of an apartment block in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, local daily Kyunghyang Shinmun reported Tuesday.
Management staff at the apartments in Gongdan-dong found the body of a 38-year-old Chinese at 1:30 p.m. Monday after a resident complained that the tap water had a bad smell.
“The body had no particular injuries,” police said. “The Chinese is presumed to have been dead for two weeks.”
Police are investigating and an autopsy will be held Wednesday.
Gumi City has provided bottles of mineral water to apartment residents as an emergency measure. [Korea Times]
I would not be surprised if this was North Korean payback for restaurant defections that happened last month. If this was a murder by the North Koreans I wonder what the Chinese reaction will be to Kim regime agents murdering Chinese citizens?:
An ethnic Korean clergyman with Chinese nationality has been found dead in a northeastern Chinese town close to the border with North Korea, a North Korea watcher said on Sunday, raising suspicions that the North could possibly be involved in his death.
The body of the priest, identified by his surname Han and known for his activities in support of North Korean defectors, was found Saturday afternoon, the watcher said, speculating that he may have been murdered.
Chinese police have immediately launched a probe into Han’s death.
Han is known for serving at Changbai Church in Changbai County, Jilin Province, a region that is populated by the Chaoxian people, or ethnic Koreans living in China.
“Han had been active in supporting North Korean defectors,” the watcher said. “Murder seems the most likely cause of his death.” [Yonhap]
Three British males are in big trouble after allegedly sexually assaulting two Korean women and then beating up a bystander that tried to intervene in Itaewon:
Apparently 3 British foreigners were sexually harrassing and assaulting 2 girls and a passerby dude stepped in to intervene.
But he ended up being beaten.
Seems like they’re being investigated but released from jail. [Reddit Korea via KBS and Naver]
A bunch of 2nd Infantry Division soldiers have apparently made themselves eligible for Army downsizing after being punished for the brawl they were part of at the UN Club in Itaewon:
The Army has punished nine soldiers for a brawl in Seoul’s Itaewon entertainment district, a 2nd Infantry Division spokesman said Tuesday.
Video that has been circulating on social media since shortly after the January fight shows a group of foreigners brawling in the street in front of the UN Club, a nightspot popular with U.S. troops that’s a few minutes’ walk from Yongsan Garrison, headquarters of 8th Army and U.S. Forces Korea.
The brawl involved both men and women trading punches and wrestling on the ground, oblivious to the efforts of a lone, bespectacled South Korean police officer to bring the situation under control with a glowing-red traffic wand. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but here is the Youtube video of the brawl, what disgrace:
People should be careful who they meet up with through Kakao:
A Korean man in his 20s got arrested for having multiple sexual activities with underage girls that he met through the social network.
Anaheim police department arrested a Korean man Mr. Kim last 29th of March for having sexual relationships and raping teen girls.
According to the Anaheim police, Kim contacted a 13-year-old girl through messaging app on the phone in 2014.
Kim then met the teen girl at a shopping mall in Irvine and took her to his house in La Habra and raped her.
The Anaheim police officers started sting operation and engaged in social network with Mr. Kim, disguised as the girl. Kim, thinking the officers were teenage girl, sent photos of his private body parts and offered her to have sexual activities.
Kim went out to the park in Anaheim not realizing the girl was actually the police officer and was arrested. [Korea Times]
Here is another example of a race baiting article being pushed by the media insinuating that the poor black soldier in this article that could not afford an attorney is some how getting treated unfairly compared to the white soldier who’s family could afford a civilian attorney. The article claims they committed similar crimes and received very different sentences. However, upon closer scrutiny the two crimes were very different and tried in different court systems thus different outcomes not that facts matter in click bait articles like this:
Two soldiers from the same Joint Base Lewis-McChord infantry battalion experienced two very different kinds of justice when they came home from training events a year apart and carried out deadly crimes.
Pvt. Jeremiah Hill, prosecuted in Army court, received a sentence of 45 years in prison for knifing another soldier in the heart on a Lakewood street.
The rookie soldier from a poor Chicago family had an Army-provided defense attorney and rarely showed remorse when he testified.
Spc. Skylar Nemetz, prosecuted in Pierce County Superior Court, last week received a sentence of less than 14 years for causing the death of his wife, Danielle, when he accidentally shot her in the head with a rifle.
His Northern California family reached deep into their savings to hire an experienced private attorney. Nemetz wept on the witness stand and persuaded a jury he didn’t mean to kill his wife.
The disparities in outcomes for two soldiers from the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment show the differences in what can happen when the Army and Pierce County carry out their informal agreement to decide which agency should prosecute soldiers who commit crimes outside of JBLM. [News Tribune]
You can read the rest at the link to learn the details of each case.
Statistics from the Korean National Police Agency.
