Please post articles realted to gender theories of crime here.
Practice questions:
1) According to strain theory, is crime rational or irrational?
2) What is the difference between reformist and radical criminal justice policies?
3) What is the difference between liberal and radical feminism?
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Maëlig Le Delliou
ReplyDeleteKorean Police wants to send female bikers home
This article illustrates Chapter 11 on Feminist Criminological Theories (and once again it is about “motorcycle gangs”!).
The article shows how men and women are socialized into different identities (liberal and socialist feminism) or biologically determined (radical feminism), with women being confined to subordinate positions. Motorcycle gangs are described as “boy gangs”. Girls join only because of their boyfriends (the “pathway” approach suggests that there are different pathways to crime for girls: and here, emotional bonding rather than peers associations led them to join the gang). Also, girls are supposed to content themselves with the back seats of the motorcycles.
Thus, the Police clearly suggest that girls are to be considered as victims whereas boys are to be considered as full delinquents. They agree with socialist feminists since they view women as passive/victims and men as active/offenders.
The Police wants to treat each gender differently: they plan to “[send] home female students”, while they will obviously resort to more severe punishment for boys. Girls are discriminated because they are denied (in that case) their criminality. The Police’s attitude also refers to the “chivalry hypothesis”. Here, girls who’ve joined motorcycle gangs are less likely to be featured in crime statistics: even if they get caught, they will just have to go home. They will be treated lightly compared to boys. In Chapter 11, the author says this attitude is changing as more and more women are holding justice positions. However, in Korea (or at least according to this article), the Police remains biased towards female offenders and they still believe in sexist assumptions that girls need to stay home and that they are more socially controlled than boys.
According to Liberal Feminism Theories, women and men need to be treated equally. Discrimination needs to be removed, although it might mean that women’s crime rates will increase. For instance, women will not be relegated to riding on the back of the motorcycle anymore, so they will have more opportunities to commit crime as their role will evolve.
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Police will join hands with education ministry officials and teachers to forcibly disperse student speedsters […]. In particular, they will put a greater focus on sending home female students, who often get on the back seat of the motorcycles.
``Female students meet boy gangs at the gathering sites and sometimes instigate the boys to ride dangerously. We'll separate them from the wild bikers before the reckless riding starts,'' a police officer said.
``Girls join the gangs in a friendly atmosphere first, but the boys sometimes sexually assault them. Also, if accidents happen, those on the back are hurt more seriously than the riders,'' he said.”
Police will set up barricades at major roads where motorcycle gangs gather on the Liberation Day eve and collect evidence with video cameras. They plan to seek arrest warrants for repeat violators.
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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/08/113_50076.html
Elizabeth Tang
ReplyDelete“Ministry claims sex law discriminates against men”
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The article informs us of a decision which the Constitutional Court has to make with regards to scrapping a certain sex law or not. The controversial law is one that punishes men found guilty of luring women into bed by pretending that they will marry them. It has been called unconstitutional by the Ministry of Gender Equality as it not only discriminated against men but also suggested that women are unable to exercise their right to sexual autonomy.
Currently, according to Article 304 of Korea’s Penal Code, “a person who induces a female not habitually immoral to engage in sexual intercourse under pretense of marriage or through other fraudulent means, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years or by a fine not exceeding five million won ($4,058).”
This law was brought under fire following a petition filed last year by a 33-year-old man who was indicted on charges of conning a woman into having sex with him under the pretense of marriage. The man’s lawyer claims that the statute is primitive and thus should be scrapped, while The Confucian community and the Justice Ministry feel that women are still considered “weak” and said the statue is meant to protect them.
This issue touches on radical feminism where men are assumed to be born to be sexually dominant, and they resort to such tricks to maintain that dominance. However, this issue comes at a time when the society is changing, with a majority adopting Confucian values in the past, to one which is now more westernized and open about sex. This thus contributes to the ‘blurred boundaries’ where the men feel that women could use their ‘weakness’ to their own advantage instead. However, it also assumes that women are stupid to some extent. It is a tricky issue to tackle, and whichever decision the Constitutional Court makes will have serious implications.
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The court will take another look at the article on Thursday following a petition filed last year by a 33-year-old man who was indicted on charges of conning a woman into having sex with him under the pretense of marriage. The man has asked the Constitutional Court to review the legality of the article, claiming that the statute violates his right to pursue happiness and the right to sexual autonomy.
“The statute is primitive, created in the era when women were treated as inferior to men,” said the man’s lawyer, Hwang Chang-Il, who claims that only three countries around the world - Korea, Turkey and Romania - punish sexual intercourse under the pretense of marriage.
However, the Justice Ministry said the statute does not violate the principle of proportionality: the punishment was not in excess of the crime, although it agreed that it limited the right to sexual autonomy and privacy. According to the ministry, women are still considered “weak” and said the statue is meant to protect them.
The Confucian community agrees. “Marriage is a process of realizing sacred values in Korea’s tradition, and any acts that violate it should be punished,” said Jeon Hong-sik, secretary general of the Damsu Association, a Confucian group.
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http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2909822
Gayoung KIM
ReplyDeleteKorea creating more spaces for women-Will they provide greater protection or separate women from society?
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This article shows us how our Korean society perceives and treats men and women differently.
Let’s take a “Pink Taxi” example first.
The law was revised after women’s rights groups such as IF, the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center and the Unni Network pushed the Seoul city government to bring a “pink taxi” service to Seoul(I guess liberal feminist would agree with this idea in that there’s a special law for women). Part of their argument was that other countries such as Russia, Britain, Iran and Mexico have already initiated similar services. The driver and the passenger of this Pink Taxi are only women.
According to this article, there are more and more ‘women-only’ places such as bus seats and stops, parking lots and taxies. The reason why the central and local government came up with these ideas and revised the law is to protect female citizens from possible crimes: kidnapping, rape, homicide, harassment etc.
These ideas can assure women and their family for a moment but cannot be the ultimate solution to reduce crimes targeting women. It’s because they are just labeling not both men and women to be either criminals or victims by making these women-only zones. People think that women are weak and they cannot protect themselves without special tools like pink taxi. At the same time, men are all criminals who attack women at night. (This is what people who criticize radical feminism’s biological determinism.)
Besides this can separate women from the society by making them just stay away from or avoid possible dangers and threats like some women’s rights activists pointed out in the end of this article.
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Members of the women’s rights group IF stage a demonstration urging the Seoul city government to launch pink taxis for women, last October near City Hall, central Seoul. Provided by IF
But with an increase in awareness about women’s safety, spurred by a series of crimes against women in the last year, state and local governments have initiated their own campaigns to make the city safer for women. The campaigns create spaces for women at bus stops, on buses, in parking lots and on taxis and are identified by the color pink.
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http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2915459
Sohhee (Sophia) Hwang
ReplyDeleteFemale Juvenile Crimes Rising at Alarming Pace
This article is related to Ch.11’s feminist criminological theories. It talks about increase in crimes by female juveniles; and it also describes how violent female juvenile crimes became.
This article shows that female juveniles are no longer just victims of crime. It shows many cases of young women involving in and/or committing serious crimes, such as school violence, theft, and prostitution.
Increasing criminal behaviors of female juveniles are explained with liberal-feminist theories; the article emphasizes that young women are more socializing with delinquent young men than past.
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In May this year, ten female students from a primary school in Daejeon, North Chungcheong Province, were involved a group fight that left several casualties including one student suffering brain-damaged. The reason for the fight was trivial: one group of students provoked another, saying they did not want to see their colleagues studying English in a classroom.
While types of female-led misconducts in the past were limited to something unpremeditated and minor, recent crimes break down the time-honored legacy.
The following is a case showing how brutal and violent current female student-led crimes are.
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Crimes by female juvenile on the rise
The number of crimes committed by female attackers is increasing.
Statistics compiled by the Foundation for Preventing Youth Violence (FPYV) show how steeply the number has grown.
In 1999, female students accounted for only 2.2 percent of all offenders causing in-school crimes. But the number soared to 10 percent in 2006.
…
A 13-year-old girl had her 11th police investigation in 2005. She was charged with breaking into a neighbor's home to steal valuables. What she did was serious enough to be jailed. But she was released following the investigation due to her age. Her first crime was actually not that serious. But her school had no countermeasures against school crimes.
Teachers at the school, who had once scolded her for a series of wrongdoings, paid no attention to her as her misdeeds persisted.
She became familiar with bad boys around the school and then started getting involved in crimes such as theft, assault and even housebreaking.
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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/11/229_12916.html
Lim Young-Ju
ReplyDeleteMurderous baby blues
This article is about mother who suffered from the postpartum depression. In this article there are no criminals, but I think they have potential to commit crime, so I choose it.
Postpartum blues, otherwise known as baby blues, are mood swings that occur within the first two weeks following childbirth. The mother who have postpartum depression, one minute, they feel happy, and before they know it, they find themselves crying.
This can be individual, and macro level of problem, but in my point of view, there are several social problem. I think this case is related with patriarchy. Socialist feminism said that patriarchy subordinates women, and this subordination make women depressed. They don’t have freedom to control over whether and under what circumstances they bear and rear children. Because of this, after mothers gave birth their baby, they suffer from depression.
Also today’s women are socialized more than before, and especially in Korea women have to take care of ‘in-law’, and after a childbirth husbands don’t care about their wives and chores. Mans just think women as reprodunctive tools. These will be a lot of stress for them.
According to socialist feminism, eliminating powers based on difference and allowing women to define themselves, and demystifing gender constructions of masculinity and feminity to show diversity within is key to make things right. I agree with this oppinion. Women should claim the right to be treated equally as man. (But I don’t agree with radical ideas of socialist feminism!!)
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“I’m so afraid I will kill my baby. There’s so much I have to deal with. I feel that it’s all because of him.”
This was the shocking confession of a 30-year-old woman who gave birth to her first son 24 months ago.
“Looking after the baby, fighting with the in-laws, slacking off at work. Just everything seemed to have gotten out of control. If it hadn’t been for the baby, it wouldn’t have been this way. If it weren’t for the baby…”
Kim, not the woman’s real name, eventually realized that she had more than just the so-called baby blues. A psychiatrist prescribed antidepressants and more therapy when Kim visited with her husband earlier this week.
Kim is typical of thousands of Korean mothers who experience postpartum depression every year. According to data compiled by CHA General Hospital, which specializes in women’s health, there were 2,361 therapy sessions at the hospital for women suffering from depression, either during or after pregnancy, from January to October 2006. That’s more than double the 1,090 sessions that ran three years ago.
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http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.aspaid=2891650
*Yujung Kim
ReplyDelete*Court sentenced the woman who killed her abusive husband to probation
* Lim had tolerated her husband's violent behavior for over 10 years, so I think this
means that the court had seen her partly as a victim as in marxist feminist perspective; that Lim, who had run out of options, chose this extreme solution to extricate herself from the desperate situation.
In fact, many women who killed their husbands are victim themselves. they are abused physically and sexually for a long-term and they just put up with it during those times.
And if they reached their limit or eventually felt fear for their lives and their children's ,they manage them in extreme ways; by killing their abuser to make him incapable of hurting them. But why did they have to endure all those years and end up becoming a criminal? I think it's partly because of the social recognition, that women have to be patient and self-sacrificing, was still remaining, because in their mother's generation, it was a feature of an ideal woman. I once read a paper about research on female offenders mostly charged with murdering their abusive husbands. Researchers interviewed them and asked them why didn't they talked to their mothers or close relatives and asked for help. They answered that they did but, the answer returned was 'You have to endure it because I've been through that too' as if it was a fate of being a woman.
Feminist perspectives have some shortcomings and some are too extreme(like radical feminism) but I think it is needed especially, in Korea where women's social status are relatively low.
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창원지법 제3형사부(재판장 문형배 부장판사)는 12일 남편을 살해한 혐의로 불구속 기소된 임모(39.여)씨에게 살인죄를 적용, 징역 3년에 집행유예 5년과 말기암 환자 간호 등 사회봉사 240시간을 선고했다.
살인사건에 대해 집행 유예가 선고된 것은 극히 이례적이며, 임씨 살인이 가정 폭력으로 유발된 우발적인 사건으로 판단, 선처한 것으로 보인다.
Court sentenced Lim(39,female) who killed her husband, who had been abusing her habitually, to 3 years in prison, 5 years of probation and 240 hours of social service, which is a relatively light degree of punishment considering that it's a homicide case.
임씨는 지난 95년 결혼 이후 10여년간 남편으로부터 가정폭력을 당해오던 중 지난해 6월 11일 폭력을 휘두르고 강제적 성관계를 요구한뒤 자고 있던 남편을 목졸라 살해한 혐의로 불구속 기소돼 징역 5년을 구형받았으며 여성 단체들은 임씨의 구명운동을 벌여왔다.
Lim has married for 10 years since 1995, and she had been abused since then. And last june 11th she strangled her husband who's been sleeping after he hit her and forced her to have sex. She was originally charged with 5 years in prison and women's organizations campaigned to help her.
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*URL: http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2006/04/12/2006041270204.html
Goeun Kim
ReplyDeleteThis article is about a facility to be established in Choonbook for the prevention and reduction of gender related crime.
I believe that in Korea women are defiantly a weak majority. Korean women are depicted to be feminine and to be a part of a man rather than an individual. Traditionally Korea was a fixed male dominant society and it still has so many of those characteristics. Crime is a reflection of the dominant and the weak. Women in Korea are yet very weak and although they should be protected, the way to prevent crime focused on women not only by establishing facilities to help reduce crime itself, but by making an environment that will help women level their power to men. The more gender related crimes are reported, the more the people’s minds are set to the dominance of men. Radical Feminism at this point would not be much of an influence because not only men but also women feel that they are the weaker.
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Chungwun – Heongduk “Cooperation for Teenagers and Women”
2010-03-28 14:38
Choongbook Chungwun, Heongduk Police have cooperated with charity centers to protect teenagers and women from crime.
They have met at several meetings to discuss the establishment and the legalization of an NGO which will protect and prevent crime from children, teenagers and women.
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=003&aid=0003158400
Valerie Raeymaekers
ReplyDeleteMore Husbands Complain of Abuse by Their
Although the other way around the number pales, there seems to be a sharp increase in husband battering, which has gone up to 3% and 290 known cases. Psychological abuse is more widespread however with 1/3 men suffering from it.
I believe this article shows partly a link to the liberal feminist theory and the marxists theory and to no theory given in the syllabus.
In cases were psychological abuse is done, one could argue that the change of environment (men losing their job) provided the opportunity to women to become the powerful half of a couple. As such, the loss of their husbands job (economic reason, which can also be partly attributed to the Marxist theory) has given these women more of an edge and a chance to rise their position from what might have been a marginalized one, to the head of house.
However at the same time, since there is also talk of violence, there seems to be nothing that can show us why all of a sudden women who's husbands got fired changed their roles or what made them change. Since there is no mention of previous battering before the job loss, one can not assume these women were in fact themselves abused. Violence is typically not attributed to women and as such I also believe the number of husband battering is probably way higher. There is a certain shame that comes with being beaten by your wife because people have been socialized into masculine/feminine charachteristics.
There is also a mention of woen's growing economic power that puts them on top, yet it is a fact that the working world is still dominated by men and as such can be seen as a patriarchy.
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More than 3 percent of Korean husbands admitted they have been beaten by their wives. Data provided by the National Police Agency suggests that last year there were 290 reported cases of husband-battering. The number may pale against thousands of wife-beating cases every year but the survey says it represents a sharp increase.
A Gender Equality Ministry survey shows that psychological abuse of the male spouse seems more widespread as the survey of 6,158 married or divorced couples shows one out of 3 men suffered mental abuse.
No specific reasons were cited for the husband-battering, but some academics point to the growing economic power of women. They also say domestic violence tends to occur when husbands lose their jobs. Men usually don't retaliate because they are afraid of divorce and the negative effects the breakup may have on their children.
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http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2005/04/25/2005042561005.html
Yoon Young Kang
ReplyDelete"Police: Cab Driver Confesses to 2 Rapes, Murders"
This article has once again enhanced the fact that men are much more engaged in violent crimes such as rape, murder, serial killing, etc. than women are. Especially in Korea, as in the cases of Yoo Young Chul and Kang Ho Soon, these types of serious offenses by men are frequently reported, while we rarely see such crimes committed by women.
Korea is one of the major economies in the world and is possibly one of the states that is moving toward creating an "egalitarian society" especially in terms of gender. Various laws were legislated to give women more rights. Also, there is more active female participation in high levels of the society - for instance, 70% of the newly appointed judges in 2010 were women, and the rate of women among those who passed the civil service examination in were higher than men for several years in the 21st century. Therefore, when looking at these data, the status, level of education, and power of women in Korea is very much improved, and probably not significantly inferior to those of men.
Then why the serious crimes caused by women are so low compared with men in Korea?
According to the Marxist Feminist theory, this is the result of the patriarchy rooted in the economic structure where women are exploited. The exploitive and discriminative system of labor based on gender in Korea is shown in an article that stated Korea's wage gap between male and female workers is the highest among the OECD countries. (http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2918715)
The findings of this article shows that female employees(regular workers) received on average 38 percent less than their male counterparts. Thus, women are treated as the "reserve army of labor" even though the society experienced some meaningful changes and improvement - probably the status of women of high academic achievement was highly improved but not that of women in general. In my opinion, it is because” firstly, those women who had passed the state bar examinations and become civil servants are not subject to the capitalist system; and secondly, Korea is in the phase of transition - the society is still very patriarchal, and women are still mostly used as domestic labor. Yet, I do not believe positive changes toward the gender equality are not superficial because the fact that the percentage of women of high social status means that this country is soon to be much more fair - "changes from the above" would change the whole.
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A taxi driver has confessed to raping and killing a 24-year-old passenger in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, last weekend, and police said on Tuesday that he is linked to two unsolved murder and rape cases in the area.
Police said the driver, a 41-year-old man surnamed Ahn, is an ex-convict who served two and a half years in jail for rape a decade ago. He was detained by police on Tuesday.
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http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2918618
-Jun So-min
ReplyDelete-A man in his 30s convicted of sexual abuse of a middle-school girl for 8 years
-Moon (34) was arrested for sexually abusing a middle-school girl that he met through the Internet for the last 8 years. Moon met A (23)through an Internet chatting site and continued having forced sexual relationship. It is said that he kept this abusive relationship by threatening 'A' that he was going to tell A's parents and teachers about it. 'A' had to go back and forth between Iksan and Suwon as often as every once or twice a week to have unwanted sex.
This case could be interpreted by the Radical Feminists' view that crime is "an expression of men's need to control and dominate others". Moon's behavior clearly shows a man who is sexually dominant and aggressive, making the victim's self-determination denied.
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Moon kept the relationship going by threatening A through making 12 sex videos and even recording tapes of them having phonesex. 'A' tried to endure this until summer vacation of her first year of college, which is when Moon said he would let her go. However, the promise was never kept and after worrying for some time, A finally reported Moon to a consulting office. The police said Moon has tried to make more victims through the Internet but failed to do so.
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URL:http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/04/01/2010040100036.html
* Agnes Seul-Gi Kang
ReplyDelete* Radical Feminism
* A taxi driver was suspected of raping and murdering three women, and is also under suspicion of some murders around the neighborhood. I think this article may support the radical feminist point of view. The majority of taxi drivers are males, mainly because males are considered the better drivers, are more familiar with the geography of Korea, and maybe because it is potentially dangerous for women to drive a taxi around at night, with drunk male passengers.
However from this article, one can say that male taxi drivers pose as much threat to female passengers, as do male passengers to female taxi drivers. The radical feminist argument states that men in powerful positions must be replaces to free male domination and lean toward a more matriarchal society. The taxi industry is definitely dominated by male drivers, thus posing potential threat to late night female passengers.
Another interesting point is that this taxi driver was an ex-convict, yet after set free, he became a taxi driver. I think this also abides by the radical feminist argument that crime is natural to men. Despite being incarcerated for previous murders and rapes, the driver continued to commit those crimes because it is in his nature.
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* He was apprehended for robbing, raping and killing a 24-year-old female passenger last Friday.
During police questioning, he also turned out to be a prime suspect in two similar cases of kidnapping and murder back in 2004 and last year, said officials.
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http://koreaherald.heraldm.com/entertainment/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100331000415
Sejin Jung
ReplyDelete9,408 Juvenile Sex Offenders to Be Monitored
The article is about reinforcing the monitoring system which is to surveil criminals committing sex crime against children. In addition, the government will expand the route of accessing the criminals’ personal information. These actions have been posed by the public for a long time. Of course, on the other hand, some civic groups say that our society should protect the basic rights of criminals whose information need not to be opened to the public. However, I think the government should allow publication of the personal information of brutal criminals to protect people because sex offenders have a very high rate of recidivism. Furthermore, more action should be supplemented along with just monitoring the sex offenders like other countries. Our county needs to punish them more severely.
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The National Police Agency said Wednesday that 9,408 former sex offenders will be put under special watch from May. Currently, 1,689 are being monitored.
The measure comes amid growing public anger over a child rape-murder case, in which a 33-year-old convicted sex offender confessed to raping a 13-year-old victim and suffocating her to death.
Among those to be added to the surveillance list, are 2,630 child rapists, 2,551, who are found to have engaged in sexual harassment, and 2,538 pedophiles.
In addition, personal information of criminals committing sex crimes against children will be open to the public at police offices in districts where criminals under observation are living.
So far, concerned citizens have only been able to access details of juvenile sex offenders on a need-to-know basis at police stations.
Police also plan to categorize child molesters according to their age, type of crime and frequency of offending.
Those in the top-tiered Group A will be supervised by police for 10 years after being released from custody, while those in Groups B and C will be under watch for five and three years, respectively.
Police are also seeking to revise related laws so that the Ministry of Gender Equality will be empowered to make personal information of sex offenders public.
Korea has seen a growing number of children suffering from sexual violence. According to the statistics, 3.3 sex crimes against children are committed a day and the number of victims under 13 years of age is increasing by 10 percent every year.
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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/03/117_62562.html
Shuying Mei
ReplyDelete"Death Penalty to Stay; Adultery Law to Go"
This article shows the efforts of the South Korean legal authorities in reducing gender biasness. The legal experts are now considering to broaden the scope of rape victims by including men as victims of rape. This is because currently, only women are legally recognised as rape victims. Furthermore, they are also considering to abolish the anti-adultery law in Korea as some women have been making used of it to advance their own interests.
Thus, in contrast to the theory of radical feminism, men are not biologically determined to be offenders as women are not necessarily always the victims of crime. Even in crimes like rape which are usually said to be committed by men, women can also be the offenders of these crimes, just that many go unreported due to laws that tend to perceive women as victims. Moreover, men are also not always criminals of adultery as women can also manipulate the law to their advantage, resulting in some of the men involved to be wrongly accused. Thus, statistics of crime that normally show a much higher percentage of men to be criminals are not always that accurate.
Although legal reforms may not lead to a complete removal of gender biasness or a significant change in crime statistics, at least the South Korean legal authorities are making the effort to take into consideration the influence of gender on crime.
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[Death Penalty to Stay; Adultery Law to Go]
Experts' Opinion Suggests Men Be Recognized as Rape Victim
By Oh Young-jin
Staff Reporter
Korea is likely to retain the death penalty for the foreseeable future, while abolishing the controversial law that makes adultery a crime punishable by a jail term.
Men will also likely be included as victims of rapes, while the law that penalizes men for luring women to have sex with them under the false promise of marriage may be gone.
These and other revisions in the current criminal code have been suggested by legal experts.
The Ministry of Justice will consider these suggested changes and hold public hearings before coming up with a draft package of revisions that will be sent to the National Assembly next year.
The experts' suggestions have been regarded as an important basis for the introduction of new laws, as well as the abolition and revision of existing laws, in the past, meaning that their latest suggestions will be very much reflected in the ongoing effort to update the nation's criminal laws.
Regarding the law on rape, a broader interpretation on the scope of victims was suggested, recognizing not only women but also men as victims of the crime. Currently, only women may be legally classified as rape victims, with perpetrators punishable by up to three years in prison. Men are only protected under the ``law banning forced acts against one's will.''
At the same time, the experts believe that it is important to revise the current law so the authorities will be able to initiate investigations into rape cases without a report by the victims. It has been widely observed that, in rape cases, the perpetrators often commit the crimes knowing victims are reluctant to report them due to the shame and embarrassment caused by the cases being revealed to others. This is a key reason why many rape cases go unreported, according to crime experts.
Also suggested is the abolition of what have been widely considered as legal protections for women ― laws that punish those engaged in adultery and in deceiving women into sex on false promises.
ReplyDeleteThere have been concerted attempts in recent years to strike out adultery from the criminal code of justice with hearings made to the Constitutional Court. The court, however, ruled for the constitutionality of the law. The battle lines over adultery are not drawn by gender but between traditionalists and progressives. Those who believe in and practice Confucianism are at the frontline against the abolition of the anti-adultery law, although some women's rights activists also side with them.
Many believe that the days of the law are numbered, citing the precedents of abolition made by other advanced countries. The anti-adultery law in Korea shares the same origins as those in other countries, which are closely related to the male-dominated social system that puts great value on women's chastity. The law, however, has morphed into a legal device some wives use to put pressure on their husbands on the loose, and in some cases, they use it to get a higher portion of the couple's wealth when their marriage ends up in a divorce. Most women's groups, now, see that the law has an element of perpetually casting women as the lesser of the genders and has long outlived its usefulness.
The experts suggested that the adultery law can be abolished immediately without any legal ramifications. ``Marriage should be seen as a contract between the two consenting adults. If one party in that contract reneges on his or her end of the bargain, it should be dealt with by existing civil and criminal laws,'' an expert was quoted as saying.
However, the death penalty was left alone.
Those who participated in the debate concluded that there needs to be a greater consensus throughout society before tinkering with capital punishment. However, this doesn't mean there were no heated discussions on the issue, with some suggesting life imprisonment with no chance of parole as an alternative. But the prevalent opinion was that this alternative does not meet the ``philosophy of proportionality'' ― meaning that murderers should be punished by no other means than death.
Civic organizations are conducting campaigns to strike out the death penalty, with the late former President Kim Dae-jung, a Catholic, staying all executions of death row inmates during his term of office. But whenever heinous crimes take place, the public support of the ultimate punishment gains more traction.
Additionally, the experts proposed that insults against individuals on line can be handled under the current law system, objecting to legislative efforts by the government for a specific law on it. The so-called cyber insult law was pushed by the government after candlelit protests against the resumption of U.S. beef last year. The massive protests were organized on line, with groundless rumors spreading by leaps and bounds through the Internet, triggering the government to seek a new and stringent legal device against such insults.
foolsdie@koreatimes.co.kr
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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/12/117_51627.html
Hey-In Kang
ReplyDelete-Female tempt business men for marriage and steal real estate of 1.4 billion
(“나 검사 딸인데…” 결혼 미끼로 14억대 부동산 꿀꺽)
-This article is about a woman who lied to one business men, saying that she is a daughter of one of former prosecutor and running theater as the family business, and tempt him to buying house for their marriage in Kangnam. I think her way to commit crime can be explained in Marxist Feminism and Socialist Feminism. It is interesting that she lied by using family especially father, and approach to him by using marriage. Also she uses as her excuse for delaying actual marriage registration was “sickness of father” which also shows the female socialization that females are educated as a housekeeper and more family person.
-I am afraid that I couldn’t find English translation for this article. Please find this article from URL below (in Korean), or refer my translation.
- Woman who lied to 40 year old business man, Mr. Kim, that she is the daughter of former prosecutor, approaching him to say marry her, stole 1.4 billion of real estate, was arrected.
Prosecutor says that last July of 2003, she approached to Mr. Kim, saying that her family runs the theater in Jongno, her father was a former prosecutor and she had an engagement with chaebol before, stole real estate owned by Mr. Kim.
She asked him to buy some honeymoon house for marriage and make him to buy the house under her name because of his unstable business. When Mr. Kim asked her to have marriage registration, she excused that her father is sick so take a time for real marriage.
Chosun, 18 March 2010
http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/03/18/2010031800101.html
Shaline Tan Yen Ling
ReplyDelete-Rights commission rules for pregnant schoolgirls-
In relation to the above article, the Radical Feminist theory can be used to explain the underlying social implications in Korea and its view on education by the institutions that provide the education to the students.
According to the above article, it tells us about how Kim was being expelled after being pregnant in high school (Ganghwa Girls High School) and its social implications. She was not allowed to continue with her high school education because the teachers told her that schools regulations state that any student who disrupts the moral code of the school with an “unwholesome relationship” is subject to expulsion. The school was unsympathetic to Kim’s case and even threatened to report Kim’s boyfriend to police for having sexual relations with a minor. However, having appealed to the Commission, the school then had to relent to re-enroll Kim back due to warning from the Commission.
This article also points out an important issue which links to poverty (which may inevitably lead to crime). “Forcing a student to drop out is clear discrimination and goes against the student’s right to have an education … If a teenager stops her education because she is pregnant, there is a high possibility she might not find a job and become entangled in a vicious cycle of poverty.”
The crux of the problem in this case is that the pregnant girl, Kim, was not allowed to attend lessons under the institution’s instructions. In this case, institution here is seen as trying to maintain order in their society, which it tries to control the culture. This social institution also innately carries the root of “law of the father” which in turns, disadvantaging women, and that women’s bodies and activities are controlled by it. The solution is really to liberate themselves from the controls of the institutions where they set social constructions of what women should be. The reason that the teachers had given Kim was the very same reason of social construction of what a virtue woman should be, so that it will not tarnish the school’s reputation – also means the construction of a virtue school’s identity.
(PART 1)
"The National Human Rights Commission said yesterday that any school that forces a student to drop out because she is pregnant is being discriminatory and infringing on her right to an education.
ReplyDeleteThe announcement follows the case of Kim Su-hyeon, 19, a teenager who was forced to drop out during her senior year of high school last year because of a pregnancy.
Though many Western countries allow pregnant high school students to complete their educations, Kim’s case is the first of its kind in Korea to be decided by the commission.
Kim agreed to reveal her real name to the JoongAng Ilbo, commenting that she hoped her case would help other teenage mothers who have been forced to end their studies.
Last April, Kim, who attended Ganghwa Girls High School in Incheon, took a pregnancy test.
The result was devastating.
“I held on to the test kit and just wept,” she recalled. “Everything went black.”
The father: Kim’s boyfriend, Choi Seong-ho, 25 years old at the time.
After some discussion with Choi, Kim decided to have the child but also continue with her high school education. But when teachers learned of the situation, they told Kim to bring her parents to school because she needed to drop out or go to another school. They told Kim that school regulations state that any student who disrupts the moral code of the school with an “unwholesome relationship” is subject to expulsion.
The next day, Kim’s mother, Yang Gyeong-ae, 47, got on her knees and pleaded with Kim’s main teacher, saying that if her daughter was expelled, she would not be able to enroll again at a high school or even take a high school equivalency test.
Kim’s teachers, however, were adamant. She had to leave. They even threatened to report Kim’s boyfriend to police for having sexual relations with a minor.
So Kim dropped out, and Yang brought the case to the attention of the commission. Soon, the commission requested that the school take Kim back. After the school refused, the principal got a warning letter from the regional education office. The school finally relented and Kim was able to re-enroll in July and received her diploma.
Kim is far from being alone as a teenage mother. Data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service shows that there were around 3,300 teenage births in 2008. According to a survey by the Korea’s human rights commission, 87.6 percent of teenage moms continued their educations. But one-third dropped out.
Korean regulations toward pregnant teenagers have been comparatively nonexistent when looking at other developed countries. In the U.S., a law banning the expulsion of pregnant schoolgirls was passed in 1972. In Britain, it is mandatory for a pregnant teenager younger than 16 to go to school. For those mothers, child care is provided by the state.
In Germany, unwed mothers are allowed to take pregnancy leave, in which their right to be educated at school is protected.
“Forcing a student to drop out is clear discrimination and goes against the student’s right to have an education,” an official at the human rights commission said. “If a teenager stops her education because she is pregnant, there is a high possibility she might not find a job and become entangled in a vicious cycle of poverty.”
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2917923
(PART 2)
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