Domestic abuse offenders breached emergency protection orders issued by police 703 times in the first nine months of this year, nearly matching the total for all of last year. Critics say victim protection is limited because such violations draw only administrative fines and police lack the means to verify compliance.
Data submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Park Sang-woong of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, showed 703 violations of emergency protection orders in domestic abuse cases from January through September, the lawmaker said on the 25th. That is 98.3% of the 715 violations recorded for all of last year. Violations have risen every year, from 296 in 2023 to 399 in 2024 and 715 last year. If the current pace holds, this year's total is likely to exceed last year's.
Emergency protection orders allow police to order an abuser to leave the home or to stay away from or cut off contact with the victim in urgent cases where further abuse is feared, before a court issues its own protective order. Although the measure is designed to shield victims quickly, critics say it is of limited use because penalties for breaching it are light.
Under current law, violating a court-ordered protective measure can bring up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 10 million won ($7,000), with heavier penalties for repeat offenders. Breaching an emergency order issued by police, by contrast, carries only an administrative fine of up to 3 million won. In effect, the same stay-away order draws sharply different penalties depending on which body issued it.
Verifying compliance is another problem. Even when police order an abuser to leave the home or stay away, a violation is difficult to detect immediately unless the victim reports it. With few ways to monitor an offender's movements in real time or physically block access, victims risk further crimes.
Violent crimes have occurred in such gaps in protection. Kim Sung-woo, 26, who was arrested this month on charges of killing his mother-in-law and abducting his wife in Seoul's Songpa District on the 11th, committed the crimes after a court protective order barring him from approaching his wife had expired and before a court ruled on a renewal request. The case shows how protection can lapse between the expiration of an existing order and a decision on what follows.
Police say the system needs to change so that high-risk domestic abusers can be separated from victims quickly. In particular, they are pushing to ease the requirements for requesting that an offender be held in a detention cell, allowing such requests even when no protective order has been breached if the risk of repeat abuse is high.