A 24-year-old man who assaulted a female convenience store clerk in the southeastern city of Jinju last year, calling her a “feminist” due to her short hair, has been sentenced to three years in prison in his appeal trial.
The court recognized the attack as a “misogynistic crime,” marking the first time in South Korea that misogyny was acknowledged as a motive in a criminal ruling. The victim, who lost her hearing due to the attack, expressed relief at the “meaningful ruling.”
The Changwon District Court’s criminal division upheld Wednesday the original three-year sentence for the attacker, 24, citing “groundless hatred toward women” as the motive behind the crime.
The incident occurred in April last year, when the 24-year-old assaulted a female part-time worker at a convenience store in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, because of her short hairstyle, calling her a “feminist.”
This sounds unbelievable, like the turning of a ship to avoid an iceberg. It’s an unbelievably light sentencing, showcasing the country’s lack of interest in protecting women’s rights while declaring the intent to do so in the ruling.
If my partner was attacked, lost her hearing and had to attend court multiple times to defend her rights to safety, and the perpetrator got 3 years? I’d be furious.
I know she’d be devastated. The times she felt unsafe already leave such a big impact, let alone a realised attack.
Anyway. I do hope it’s just a positive sign, that all it will take is a bit more time. I want to believe it’s positive. But it’s wild to compare what I’d like to believe as obvious human rights; to not be attacked to the point of disability from an unprovoked human, then believe in the justice system in arrears to punish and (theoretically) prevent.
Anyway, long rant. Processing it because I probably believed Korea was better than that. Not all the humans, just at least the culture and law.
Korea has had a long running problem with entrenched patriarchy and extremist feminists that spawned in response.
Googling about sentencing for assault I found this “A person who uses violence against another shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years, a fine not exceeding 5 million won, detention, or a minor fine.”
So in that context 3 years being a 50% increase over the otherwise 2 year maximum seems fair enough to me.
This isn’t just simple assault, it’s also battery on the level of severity of causing permanent disability. The sentence goes up to 10 years for more severe assault and battery: https://www.thekoreanlawblog.com/2023/01/sentence-korean-crime-korea.html . Based on what they say there, this guy probably received closer to the minimum sentence.