According to the Korea Herald and Times, a lawmaker, Representative Woo Yoon-keun has stated, “Along with the crime rate of foreigners, the number of sexual crimes committed by them is rapidly increasing,” said the lawmaker. This is despite the fact that he himself cited statistics that show that foreigners have a lower conviction rate than Koreans, 40% vs. 45%, respectively. According to him, that just means that foreigners need to be more targeted and more heavily punished.
“The government should come up with preventive measures to the increasing sex crimes committed by expatriates.”
“The police and prosecution should punish them strictly, while taking measures for prevention.”
Here’s a radical idea: How about punishment-that-fits-the-crime for all sexual offenders, regardless of whether they are Koreans or non-Koreans? Here are some articles to bring you up to speed.
–> Few teachers punished for sexual crimes
–> Today’s Joongang Ilbo column is about lenient sentences
And Gusts of Popular Feeling does an excellent job of dissecting and providing rebuttals to the misrepresented crime statistics on foreigners.
–> More on English teacher crime stats
–> [Untitled]
–> A closer look at the crime statistics for foreign English teachers
–> Foreign English teacher crime statistics released
–> How to make foreign English teachers an AIDS threat in 5 easy steps
–> An In-depth Look at Anti-English Spectrum
–> The achievements of Anti-English Spectrum
–> NHRCK update
Indeed. One foreign sex offender is one too many, and the lawmaker is indeed right that the numbers have gone up.
But, let’s look at it compared to the crimes committed by Koreans, and see that the rate is still lower.
Moreover, instead of suggesting there’s a problem with foreign sex criminals, how about the Korean courts stop going out of their way to make sure sex offenders get the lightest punishment possible.
Comment by Brian — October 20, 2009 @ 6:09 am