Loopholes abound in supervision of child sex offenders

A computer academy at a commercial-residential building in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, was crowded with middle and high school students taking lessons to earn proficiency certificates. One of the three staff members at the academy who counseled students was a 35-year-old man with hair lightly dyed in yellow. He was called by his alias “Kim XX” there.

Clad in short-sleeved shirt and cotton pants, this otherwise normal-looking man, known here as “Uncle Kim,” was convicted of attempted rape. He sexually assaulted a middle school girl in March and was sentenced to four years in prison with a four-year stay of execution. Sex Offender Alert e, the government-run website disclosing the profiles of sex offenders, displays his real name and portrait.

○ Sex offender runs academy for students without obstacle

According to academy sources, the man is effectively the director of this institute, which was taken over in the name of his mother. When the Employment and Labor Ministry went to the academy to check facilities in March, he reportedly signed documents in his capacity as its chief. On a normal day, he counsels students, many of whom are middle and high school girls.

The man can freely see teenage students while hiding the record of his sexual crime against a minor, because the academy provides a loophole in the government’s effort to manage sex offenders. Under Korean law, a person who has been indicted for a sex crime is banned from working for an academy that serves children and teenagers for 10 years after the execution of punishment.

The government queried criminal records of 1.31 million people who work with facilities used by minors last year, and discovered among them 46 sex offenders, including tutors at academies and chiefs of child daycare centers.

The problem is that the academy run by “Uncle Kim” was excluded from the list of institutions required to deny employment to sex offenders. This academy is classified in the category of a “lifelong vocational education academy” and excluded from those institutions on the grounds that, “It is mostly used by adult attendees.”

Of the 250 people enrolled at the academy, however, eight are under age 19, including a 14-year-old middle school girl. The academy’s website has a promotional post, which reads, “Students under age 15 are welcome.”

When The Dong-A Ilbo began an investigative report into the academy Wednesday, the Suwon City Office of Education began its own on-site inspection in the afternoon the same day. The Gender Equality and Family Ministry is considering putting life-long vocational educational academies on the list of institutions subject to the ban on hiring sex offenders because many teenagers attend such academies.

○ Profiles not publicized when offenders agree with victims on compensation

This is just part of many loopholes in the supervision of sex offenders. A convicted rapist will be excluded from those subject to public disclosure of their profiles and notification by post mail as long as the culprit agrees with the victim on compensation.

People around a sex offender will have no way of knowing of his or her past crimes just because of the agreement with the victim. Hence, more victims could be created.

Another problem is that many sex offenders against minors are released without serving their prison terms through stay of execution. According to the Criminal Punishment Committee’s Annual Report released by the Supreme Court in 2010, 54.6 percent of sex offenders against minors under age 13 were released through suspended sentences from July last year, when the standards on punishment for sex crimes were toughened. The ratio was 37.3 percent before then.

A professor said, “Since punishment for sex crimes has been toughened, prosecutors sometimes indict offenders after omitting several of the charges to help prevent the court from imposing too heavy a punishment on the offender.”

Still another problem is that the electronic anklet applied to sex offenders can be taken off easily. On Sunday, a 42-year-old sex offender in Guri, Gyeonggi Province, cut off the anklet from his ankle and ran away before being arrested by police.

becom@donga.com