A Review and Alternatives of Legislations toSupport the Child Victims of Sexual Violence

In accordance with the public demand that much stronger punishments must be enforced to sexual offense on children, the South Korean government is carrying outlegislative revisions and various legal institutions protect children from sexual offense. Children and adolescents who are exposed to a horrible crime of sexual violence, when they are still in an incomplete stage of physical growth and mental maturity, experience very serious psychological traumas that lead them to various mental and physical sufferings. However, it is necessary to pay much closer attention to sexual violence against children and support/protect them through more detailed measures and interventions when the crime occurs considering the fact that the ratio of hidden crime for sexual violence against children is high. Although child victims are protected through legislative revisions and legal institutions, there is no sufficient support service that child victims can receive directly and thus delivery systems need to be improved. This paper reviews the delivery system and the existing legislations of delivery systems as a means to strengthen the support and protection of child victims from sexual violence and suggest improvements. In specific, the paper first divides the ages of child victims; it expands the range of victims, makes the status survey of sexual violence against children and adolescents mandatory and expands the subjects of education. Finally, it establishes individual support system for child victims.