Intimate partner violence - pleas turn to threats, finally to bloodshed

Posted on : 2016-03-08 16:02 KST Modified on : 2016-03-08 16:02 KST
Authorities seeking ways of warming women about partners with histories of violence
Intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence

His pleas for her to call eventually turned into threats. “Just wait and see what I do,” the message said. “Today, I’m going to prison because of you. You were playing with me, weren’t you?”

This past January, a man surnamed Kim, 35, sent about 100 text messages and tried calling the woman who had ended their relationship.

But Kim‘s stalking did not stop with text messages and phone calls. Kim showed up at his girlfriend’s workplace and threatened her, showing her the tattoos on his body.

On Feb. 17, the West Police Department on Jeju Island arrested Kim on charges of criminal threatening and business interference.

Following a month in which it focused on complaints of violence between romantic partners that wrapped up on Mar. 2, South Korea’s National Police Agency announced on Mar. 6 that it had fielded 1,279 complaints and brought in 868 suspects. The police ended up booking 61 of the suspects on charges including criminal threatening, confinement and murder.

“People are less likely to report violence by a romantic partner during the early stages unless they feel a serious threat because it’s a romantic relationship,” the police explained.

During the crackdown, 58.3% of perpetrators who were reported were in their 20s and 30s while 35.6% were in their 40s and 50s. The most common types of intimate partner violence were physical abuse and injury (61.9%), confinement and threatening (17.4%) and sexual abuse (5.4%). There was also one case of murder and one case of attempted murder.

“The majority of cases of intimate partner violence consist of physical assault, confinement and threatening and sexual assault, sometimes in combination,” said a police spokesperson.

For example, when the girlfriend of a man surnamed Lee, 54, ignored his instructions to stay at home and tried to go out this past January, Lee locked her inside the house. After that, he brandished a knife at her and threatened to disseminate pictures he had taken of her without her permission.

A man surnamed Park, 45, was arrested last month after being accused of breaking into the house of his ex-girlfriend, who had broken up with him, by cutting through the security bars on her window, raping her while menacing her with a knife and then burning charcoal in an attempt to kill her.

In another case, a man was jailed after forcing a victim into a car and then assaulting her. When the woman escaped from the car, the man chased after her and inflicted injuries on her that took seven weeks to heal.

There was also one case that ended in murder. Last month, the Hwasun Police Department in South Jeolla Province charged a man surnamed Kim, 18, with murdering his girlfriend, who had intended to tell his parents that she was pregnant, and then disposing of her body.

According to figures provided by the Ministry of Justice, the average recidivism rate for those convicted of intimate partner violence was 76.5% between 2005 and 2014.

As a result, the police are pushing for the adoption of a Korean version of Clare‘s Law, which would allow individuals to check whether the person they are dating has a criminal record for violence.

“A lot of the people who come to us for counseling about dating abuse say that they are trying to be patient or that they are in the wrong, too,” said Lee Mi-kyeong, chairperson of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center. “But perpetrators and victims, as well as society as a whole, need to realize that even a single incident of violence between romantic partners is an unacceptable crime.”

By Bang Jun-ho, staff reporter

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