Seoul district court creates child abuse division

A Seoul district court said Sunday it will become the first court in the country to create a division solely dedicated to trying child abuse cases after a series of extreme cases of violence against children surfaced around the country.

The Seoul Central District Court said three of its criminal justice panels will be changed to try only child abuse cases starting Monday. The three will be comprised of a single-justice panel, a group panel and an appeals panel.

The move has been taken to reflect the growing societal concerns over violence against children, the court said.

The number of child abuse cases in the country nearly doubled over the past 10 years, according to the Korea Institute of Criminology. In 2004, there were 6,998 cases of violence against children. In 2013, the number soared to 13,076 cases. Over the past decade, an average 15 cases of child abuse were reported every day.

The Seoul court isn't technically the first South Korean court to create a panel dedicated to child abuse cases. In June, the Incheon District Court in Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, created a single-justice panel for child abuse trials, but it hasn't made a group panel, which handles more violent cases, or an appeals panel, like its counterpart in Seoul.

Meanwhile, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Sunday they will create a special investigations unit for child abuse in a joint effort with the government to combat this nagging social problem.

The unit will be housed under the division that manages violence against women and adolescents in the Public Security Bureau, the NPA said.

The government and the police have said elementary and middle school-aged children who aren't enrolled in school or have been absent for an extended period of time will be checked in on regularly because these kinds of children are most vulnerable to abuse.

The NPA will also add 350 more officials specializing in the investigation of domestic violence cases, including violence against children and senior citizens, and aims to have about 1,000 of them by next year. (Yonhap)

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