1. The Purposes and Significance of Research

With growing concerns for legal·social support system of domestic violence, [ACT ON SPECIAL CASES CONCERNING THE PUNISHMENT, ETC. OF CRIMES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE] and [ACT ON THE PREVENTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND PROTECTION, ETC. OF VICTIMS] were enacted in December, 1997. Although there has been not only the enactment and several revision on the laws of Domestic Violence, but the introduction of various actions, such as interim measures and victim protection order. The effectiveness of these are being seriously challenged by the lack or absence of practical supporting devices. In response to this situation, government set domestic violence as one of the national tasks to combat four-ills(task number 75) and seeks practical·systematic improvements to fight for the domestic violence. This research is meaningful as a basic policy research to contribute to these issues.
It was designed to re-review critically epistemological·methodological limitation and problems on practical operation, underlying in existing corresponding legislation on domestic violence. The purpose of this research is to check the problems and conditions of actual operation of [ACT ON SPECIAL CASES CONCERNING THE PUNISHMENT, ETC. OF CRIMES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE](Special Act on Domestic Violence, below) and seek the legislative and practical measures to improve the effectiveness of victim protection and punishment.

2. Main Content of Research

In order to achieve the research purposes, this study handles following issues. (1) It organizes the theoretical issues and preceding research result related with domestic violence. It also makes a general survey on changes of policies on domestic violence from 1998, the initiation of the act, to recent, amount to almost 15 years, and the problems and actual responds, in the respect to the safety of the victims. (2) With specific experience and legal needs survey of main judical officials(service staffs, criminal practitioners, etc), as well as actual victims and offenders, it will look through conditions and problems of criminal intervention. (3) After that, it will compare the law of advanced countries and introduce new paradigm to deal with domestic violence effectively. Deriving implications on policy as to how to develop the principles and policies of legal intervention, it seeks improvements on legislation regarding domestic violence and its operation.

3. Methodology

There are three research methods in this study: text review, official statistics analysis, and the survey. (1) Text review: It organizes and analyzes theories related to domestic violence, preceding research results, and the revision trend of Special Act on Domestic Violence and examines policy issues and problems on it. Also, in order to find the new legislative way and policies, we conducted a comparative law study about legislative trend and policies about prevention of domestic violence in advanced countries(U.S.A., U,K., Australia and New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, 8 countries). (2) Official statistics analysis: To figure out the actual situation and problems of criminal respond to domestic violence, it analyzes the statistics from The National Police Agency, the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, Courts and etc. (3) Survey: Questionnaire and in-depth interview were conducted. Purpose of questionnaire is to know conditions of operation and problems of Special Act on Domestic Violence. Questionnaire targets three groups: ①Victims ②Offenders ③ Related practitioners. Questionnaire was carried out basically in the way of semi-structured ‘self-report questionnaire’ and mainly through mail. This questionnaire had been conducted over three months, from 16th July 2014 to 16th October. The final number of subjects who made up for questionnaire is 196 victims, 208 offenders, 21 police officers, 49 probation officers, 48 counselors, 32 in shelters.
In-depth interview was done by 6 police officers, 1 prosecutor, 2 judges.

4. Main Result of Research and Policy Proposals

The result of this research and proposals based on the analysis of advanced legislative trend are as follows:

- Change of the purpose of legislation(Article 1) : The purpose of enactment of Special Act on Domestic Violence need to be revised, resetting the priority and basic principles of ‘victim protection’. A problem of Special Act on Domestic Violence, which is consistently suggested since the enactment, is something related to the purposes of enactment. Suggestion is to delete the phrase “restore peace and stability in the home destroyed by domestic violence and make sound family” and to prescribe clearly “promote the safety of the victim and family members and ensure human rights”. Deleting a “home protection” from the enactment purpose is a starting point to put the Special Act on Domestic Violence on the right track to meet the original intent.

- Expansion of types of crime on domestic violence(Article 2) : Domestic violence prescribed on Special Act on Domestic Violence, Article 2, Paragraph 3 includes various types of crime, but not the murder. Looking at the statistics of Europe, however, we can find that they concern for high-risk crime, e,g, murder on domestic violence, and seek measures to handle it. Life threatening crime is a biggest part which needs national intervention as well as it is the part which vitally requires victim protection. More than 30% of crime committed within family members is murder(attempt), so appropriate protective measures for the victims and family members are necessary in the revision. We suggest that [murder] shall be included in the types of crime on domestic violence so that measures to protect victims of domestic violence in high risk could be taken.

- Introduction of “Domestic Violence Special Units”(Development of the “problem-solving court” in the long term) : Similarly in sexual offenses, domestic violence has several distinct features. It seems to be desirable to establish from investigation to trial, considering speciality of dynamics based on familiarity of family relation. That is, it needs to introduce “Domestic Violence Special Units” concerning these features, because victims would be better protected if one court(the idea of united court) can handle particularity of domestic violence from initial response of police to civil disputes. This means that there shall be innovation of the system(Domestic Violence Special Unit) that specialists are dedicated to treat the domestic violence throughout the criminal proceedings. This innovation may require introduction of Domestic Violence Officers(DVOs) at the police stage and the new approach to the ‘unit’ of the case. That is, not the intervention focused on punishment of offender, but the new approach that makes family as a unit and focuses on complex problem solving and follow-up management. According to the result of this research, related practitioners emphasize the importance of the intervention based on family unit.

- Unification of criminal procedures : When introducing “Domestic Violence Court” as a sort of the “Problem-solving Courts”, it is suggested that we don't distinguish courts responsible for the protection case and the courts responsible for the criminal case, so that one “Domestic Violence Courts” judges and proceeds, depending on their decision whether the case needs to be treated as protection cases or criminal cases. This results to sustain dual criminal procedures pursued in Special Act on Domestic Violence and solve the problem that interrupts victim protection in the criminal court, caused by transferring the domestic violence case to the criminal case, which is well kept in the family court, The unification of criminal procedures could, finally, be achieved through it.

- Specialization and diversification of risk assessment at each phased stages : To ensure effective intervention and safety plan of victims, basic investigation and risk assessment as to the offenders must be systemized. Without these, appropriate categorized treatment is impossible. In addition, generous treatment of inadequate punishment to offenders who have a tendency of recidivism, is ineffective in respect to the suppression of violence. Hence, legal and clinical assessment to sort eligible subjects to the programs would be institutionalized in criminal procedures to refer the offenders to the proper treatment. These procedures enable (1) proper matching of offender-treatment programs, and (2) more effective usage of scarce treatment resources and (3) contribute to avoid crevice between victim safety plans and real protection.

- Enhancement of emergency interim measures and field applicability : It is the immediate separation of the offender and the victim(making use of emergency interim measures implemented from July 2011) that needs to be reformed urgently in police intervention. Because we think that the purpose of emergency interim measures is to prevent the domestic violence and protect victims, there needs to be active separation of the offenders, such as a detention in the police cells or prison, to assure the effectiveness. Also, in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the emergency interim measures, follow-up management(monitoring) is necessary. This task, in the foreign countries, is mainly up to the specialized Domestic Violence Officers(DVOs). The existence of DVOs is the essential factor of so called [Victim Empowerment Model], which supports choices and 'true' decision making of victims.

-The improvement of the victim protection order(Article 55) : There must be some improvements to make victim protection order effective. These would be prohibition on disposal of property and transfer without victim's consent, introduction of living expenses provision order, and so on.

- Expansion of system of lawyer for victims : Domestic Violence has dynamic particularity of intimate family relation, so, same in the sexual offences, legal support is essential for the victim protection. When it comes to domestic violence, in particular, the cases are mainly that proceed both criminal and civil dispute, so it highly needs the legal supports.

- Deletion of provision of respect for victim’s opinion(Article 9) : It is not desirable to depend formally upon victims' opinion as existing way it is. The existing way could lead to second-victimization, e.g cancelation of suing, enforced settlement and etc. Therefore, the provision of respect for victim's opinion needs to be deleted, and legal system may be changed for police and prosecutors to treat cases rationally accordance with the objective and careful decisions as a director of public safety.

-Introduction of special provision of investigation period for the fast track(Article 7) : Processing time of domestic violence cases should be reduced. 15-day is the common standard of processing time in western countries, and they have strong tendency to finish the cases within this period. Because offenders and victims live consistently facing, there is much possibility of conflict and re-violence after reporting the domestic violence. Also, it is the key to treat when offender awareness is sensitive.

- Systems to activate the entrusted facilities for care and custody : Existing support for victims of domestic violence makes victims and children separate from offender, living in emergency shelter and refuges. Entrusted facilities for offenders is not being implemented actually. Therefore, entrusted facilities for care and custody should be in effect, making offenders live in the entrusted facilities and correct their conduct through programs, such as education, consultation, by joining after finishing their own jobs. Victims and their children can continue to live in their existing residence.

- Strengthening the punishment for failure of correction and victim protection order : Strong actions for offenders' failure of correction is required. It is needed to make correction effective by enabling criminal penalties on any breach of correction.
When it comes to the breach of the order of victim protection and interim protection, these would be punished just same as the breach of correction.