Professional opinions on the social service systems required for coping with and preventing child sexual abuse in Korea

Abstract

In Korea, concerns over child sexual abuse have been rising recently because of the fatal consequences for victims and the fact that the incidence has continued to increase even after the government’s efforts to intensify the punishment of perpetrators. While the angry and painful responses of many Koreans to recent incidents of child sexual abuse, such as the Jo Doo Soon case, are intense enough to lead to the government’s urgent reactions to resolve it, few systematic, comprehensive approaches to coping with and preventing sexual abuse of children and adolescents have been developed. To establish efficient systems for coping with and preventing child sexual abuse, well trained experts such as physicians, psychologists, and social workers, and social service systems to train these professionals as well as institutions to provide appropriate medical and welfare services are essential. However, the current systems supporting victims of child sexual abuse, such as the Sunflower Children’s Center, One-stop Center, and other counseling centers, are not well coordinated and lack knowledgeable professionals. Furthermore, since there is no responsible government department to integrate the social welfare and legal systems for child sexual abuse, services are inefficient and decentralized. Thus to cope with and prevent child sexual abuse in Korea, we need to establish good, efficient social service systems to train experts, to coordinate each organizations, to integrate child sexual abuse treatment and prevention into the general child welfare system, and to establish enough service centers to provide all legal, medical, welfare, and other services required