Calls are growing to scrap a legal provision that bars prosecution of domestic violence when the victim objects, following a string of relationship-based crimes including the killing of a mother-in-law and the abduction of a wife in Seoul's Songpa district. Critics say leaving the decision on punishment to the victim can create greater danger.
Government ministries are drawing up measures to detect warning signs of relationship-based crime earlier and strengthen protection for victims, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said on the 21st. President Lee Jae-myung called for the changes at a Cabinet meeting on the 13th, saying that relationship-based crimes carry a high risk of recurrence and can escalate into more serious offenses, making firm early intervention necessary.
One of the central issues is whether to abolish the provision. Under the rule, offenders cannot be criminally punished if the victim states that they do not want prosecution. The clause was removed from the anti-stalking law in 2023, after a female subway station worker was murdered in 2022 by a co-worker who had stalked her for years in what became known as the Sindang Station murder. The provision still applies, however, to simple assault and intimidation committed as domestic violence.
Won Min-kyung, minister of gender equality and family, said on a YouTube channel on the 16th that she had repeatedly argued for abolishing the provision in domestic violence cases since a policy briefing last December, and that she recalled the president agreeing with the position.
Because domestic violence occurs within intimate relationships, a stated wish not to prosecute cannot be taken at face value, critics say. Heo Min-sook, a legislative researcher at the National Assembly Research Service, said victims of intimate partner violence sometimes say they do not want punishment out of fear of retaliation or financial hardship. She called the provision a toxic clause that leaves victims exposed to danger.
A large share of domestic violence cases are handled through protective orders rather than criminal punishment. From 2021 to 2025, a total of 108,054 cases were referred as family protection cases, equal to 52.2% of domestic violence arrests over the same period, according to the Korean National Police Agency. In such cases, instead of sending the matter to a criminal trial, courts impose protective measures such as restraining orders, probation, and mandatory counseling or treatment. The system is intended to help families recover, but questions have been raised about whether protective measures alone can adequately prevent repeat offenses.
Even in stalking cases, where the provision has been abolished, the practice of closing cases when victims decline prosecution continues. A woman in her 40s who was killed on the 13th in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province by a man who had been stalking her had reported sexual violence, stalking and dating violence several times before the attack, but her stalking report was closed at the scene on the grounds that she did not want the offender punished.
Experts say the burden must no longer be shifted onto victims. Heo said no one would decline prosecution if victims were guaranteed that a single report would mean they were never exposed to violence again. She called for an overhaul of the entire punishment framework for intimate partner violence, including abolishing the system of suspending indictment on condition of counseling.
