Measures to Improve the Legislation for the Prevention of School Violence: with a focus on sexual violence
Authors:   Korean Public Land Law Association, Seon Eun-Ae 
Published: November 2023

The Act on the Prevention and Countermeasures of School Violence stipulates matters necessary for the prevention and countermeasures of school violence. The purpose of this law is to protect the human rights of students and foster students as healthy members of society through protection of victims, leading and education of perpetrators, and mediation of disputes between victims and perpetrators.
Although the law was enacted and implemented in 2004, measures are urgent as various types of violence still occurring in schools have emerged as serious social problems even after the law's enforcement.
In order to prevent such school violence, various policies and systems are being implemented to prevent it, such as hiring school police officers to quickly cope with the problem of school violence.
However, recently, sexual violence inside and outside schools has been expanding to digital sexual violence, transforming into various sexual violence crimes.
Now, as the public's perception that sexual violence inside and outside schools should no longer be tolerated and that punishment for criminal minors is not in line with the public's legal sentiment, public opinion has been formed that schools are no longer a safe zone for sexual violence crimes, and calls for strong sanctions and social control are increasing for perpetrators of school violence.
Meanwhile, there were 1,210 sexual violence crimes against children under the age of 13 in 2021, showing an increase from 2012 to 2019, slightly decreasing in 2020 and then increasing again in 2021, increasing the number of sexual violence crimes against children under the age of 13 by 7.4% over the decade from 2012 to 2021. Sexual violence crimes against 13 to 20 years old recorded the highest number of cases in 2013, then decreased until 2020 and then increased again in 2021. Sexual violence crimes in children aged 13 to 20 decreased by 11.9% over the 10-year period from 2012 to 2021. Since this trend of decline is the result of a decrease in related crimes due to a decrease in the population between the ages of 13 and 20, the increase in sexual violence crimes in children under the age of 13 should be noted in this study.
Therefore, countermeasures should be prepared according to the age and type of perpetrators of sexual violence crimes in schools, and the role of school police officers should be expanded to secure objectivity, reliability, and expertise in case investigations.
In addition, if the perpetrator is a student under the age of 10, considering the seriousness of the crime in the event of sexual violence inside and outside the school, the juvenile law should be revised to expand the age of responsibility for protective measures and to include educational or disciplinary measures in the content of protective measures, and early education on sexual violence prevention to parents and children before entering elementary school is expected to play a major role in raising awareness of sexual violence crimes inside and outside the school and preventing crimes.