Courage of a young female teacher reveals ugly crimes

In Japan, it is common to disclose the identities of criminals such as murderers and rapists. Media outlets including broadcaster NHK and daily newspapers reveal the name, age, address, occupation, and even the face of suspects arrested by police. There is deeply seated awareness that the criminals’ rights are outweighed by the importance of punishing criminals, preventing recidivism, and promoting the public right to know. This journalist has the experience of living in Tokyo for more than three years as correspondent, and has been closely following the trend in Japan, but it is hard to find anyone who opposes the idea of identity disclosure. Industrialized countries such as the U.S. and those in Europe also adopt the policy of disclosing the personal information on the perpetrators of serious crimes.

In Korea, a voice was raised to promote the human rights of criminal suspects in the late 1990s, which led to the wide-spread trend of shunning the disclosure of criminals’ identity. A revision was enacted on the punishment of violent crimes in the wake of the case of Kang Ho-soon, the serial killer who jolted the nation in 2009. Thanks to the revision, the identities of criminals must be disclosed in the case of brutal crimes, but this is only applied to extremely limited cases. As a result, there is no knowing whether the person living next door is a law-abiding citizen or a violent criminal. A recent poll in Korea found that 87 percent of the respondents support the idea of disclosing the information on criminals.

A young female teacher was recently raped by three locals in a remote island village of Shinan County, South Jeolla Province. Two of the rapists were the parents of her students, and the flagrance of the nature of the crime is beyond description. Public outrage is simmering against the criminals who committed savage crimes and impinged on the life of the young teacher, who would have enjoyed a very bright future. However, the police are planning not to disclose the identities of the rapists, who will be detained and sent to the prosecution on the charge of rape. The intention must consist in preventing the private information about the criminals and their families, but obviously, everyone in the island must have known who they are.

Thanks to the courageous act of the female teacher, the whole country has learned about the poor conditions that female teachers in remote areas are faced with. The case was reported to Jang Man-chae, the education superintendent of South Jeolla Province, on May 22, but he reported the case to the Education Ministry as late as June 3. The complacent excuse was that he did not consider it "worth reporting" as it was not a murder case. Currently, 77 percent of the teachers in the country are women. The government should draw up a comprehensive measure to improve the working environment and safety of female teachers located in remote areas.

권순활논설위원 shkwon@donga.com