살인범죄피해자의 인권현실과 그 보장방안

The Upholding of the Human Rights of Victims of Murder and Counterplans for Their Improvement

Article 30 of the Korean Constitution stipulates: “Citizens who have suffered bodily injury or death due to criminal acts of others may receive aid from the State under the conditions prescribed by the Act.” To deliver such claims of criminals’ victims for salvage remunerations, the Korean government enacted the Crime Victim Aid Act in 1987 and the Crime Victim Protection Act in 2005. Nonetheless, Korean national remedies for murder victims are still very insufficient. Instead of allowing individual revenge, countries claim official authority to impose punishment; and therefore, they are obliged to protect their citizens from crimes, to impose punishment for committed crimes, and to pay substantial compensation for damages to victims. Thus, countries should pay murder victims due compensation. The Korean government, however, has paid only victims of salvage. Only around 16 percent of murder victims have received reparation. The amount paid per victim has been merely about 10 million won (with the maximum amount at 30 million won as of April 20, 2009). Considering that the beneficiaries of an urban laborer who had died from a traffic accident usually receive two hundred million won as death benefit, the amount of indemnification by the State is extremely small. Each year, the Korean government has collected about one trillion and thirty thousand million won from criminal punishments in the form of fines. If 10 percent of the amount used to compensate victims of crime were allocated for murder victims, about one hundred million won per murder victim could be paid for relief money. I think such a compensation amount would suffice to answer for the nation’s responsibility. Also, Article 27, Clause 5 of the constitution stipulates: “Avictim of a crime shall be entitled to make a statement during the proceedings of the trial of the case involved under the conditions prescribed by the Act.” We are not satisfied with criminal victims’ right to testify in criminal procedures in accordance with present laws. We should insure victims’ capacity to influence the courts’ judgment by creating institutional devices.