The Recent Developments of Victimology in Korea

The theories and the practices of victimology in Korea have developed remarkably since the year of 1992, in which the Korean Association of Victimology was founded. In this paper are overviewed such developments dividing into five themes. The first theme is the empirical study to find out the real situation of cirminal victims. For there must be some interactions or mutual relationships between offenders and victims, the real situation of the crimes cannot be understand without finding out the real situation of the victims. The second theme is the protection of the criminal victims in the criminal process. Since 1992 there are various revisions of the statutes in order to protect and help the criminal victims in the criminal process. For example, many epoch- making means to protect and help the criminal victims of the sexual violence from ‘the second sexual violence’. The third theme is considering the role of the criminal victims not only in sentencing but also in interpreting the individual offence provisions. The fourth theme is the crime victim aid. The punishment of the offenders does not mean the restoration or the rehabilitation of crime victims who cannot live normal lives because of the crimes. In some senses, the latter might be more important than the former. The fifth theme is the decriminalization of the victimless crimes such as adultery, voluntary prostitution, soft drug abuse or simple gambling. And it is more desirable to spend the human and material resources of the country in order to prevent and punish the more serious crimes than trying to prevent and punish the victimless crime