About seven months ago, a child died, and this incident was known to the public. This incident was the so-called, "Jeongin's incident". All citizens were upset because of this incident since the child's cause of death was abuse by her adoptive parents. The parents denied their crime at first, but finally, they admitted their guilt, and the adoptive mother was sentenced to life imprisonment.

▲ A child is being abused by her mother.

According to the Korea National Statistical Office, the number of child abuse in 2018 was 24,604, whereas that in 2009 was 5,685. The number of child abuse has highly increased.

May 16, 2021, it was reported that about 1,000 cases of child death from 2015 to 2017 were analyzed by the National Forensic Service, and the circumstances related to abuse were founded to a maximum of 391 children. Official results by the government at the same period were 90 children, which reach 4.3 times bigger than the statistics, even except doubtful points by the National Forensic Service.

▲ A child is neglected.

There are also the cases that are presumed as abuse or negligence as abuse suspicion was not demonstrated. In the case when infants below one year of age have no evident wound, since they were suffocated or left unattended by their parents, many of the cases of the death are recorded as "sudden infant death syndrome" or 'unidentified', "not as 'child abuse'."

▲ Child abuse must be stopped.

As the number of child abuse is increasing, the public requires much more powerful punishment to the assailant. Also, after the "Jeongin's incident", the bill was reformed. The National Forensic Service recently developed the "Child Abuse Risk Assessment Algorithm" to reduce child abuse cases. This uses artificial intelligence and shows the objective figure of risk of child abuse at home, which shows the accuracy of 95 percent.

May 23, 2021

by Lee Dowon