경찰수사절차상 성폭력피해자의 인권보호를 위한 개선방안

The Constitution prescribes the nation’s duty of the maximal respect and protection of overall basic freedom and rights based on human rights by clarifying the protection of the unlisted freedom and rights in Article 37, the human dignity in Article 10 and sveral regulations on basic rights. Since the national power may directly and strongly limit the individual human rights and freedom in the criminal procedure, it is important that the issue of guaranteeing the human rights in the investigation procedure of the investigation agency is the foundation and pivot in the penal system. In fact, the guarantee of the victim’s human rights and the consideration of a female sexual violence victim have been really neglected so far, because It is concentrated on the constitutional assignment that the guarantee of the suspect’s human rights should be realized in the investigation procedure. However, in addition to the guarantee of the suspect’s human rights, It should be also emphasized to respect the victim’s human rights during the investigation. From this respect, the most important issue is the protection of the sexual violence crime’s victim. In spite of a serious crime differently from a regular crime, even though a sexual violence victim dares to report it to an investigation agency, it is very common that victims get more damaged rather than alleviated the pain due to the common notion of not understanding the special characteristics of a sexual violence crime damage. Because sexual violence occurs when the victim is alone, the suspicion of the crime mostly depends on the statement. Therefore, the victim has the burden of making a detailed statement just like reenacting the situation at the time of the sexual violence damage in the process of the investigation and trial to verify the damage. Accordingly, the victim is damaged again during the criminal procedure. However, the investigation agents or court officers involved in the criminal justice procedure need to enhance much of the recognition or practice. Especially, as for criminally handling the corresponding sexual violence cases, the investigation should be finished with the 1st summons if possible to secure the human rights of the crime victims. The officers in charge of investigation and trials should be reminded of the seriousness of the infringement of the human rights caused by sexual violences through the education of the gender equality. In order to reduce harmful effect caused by prejudice on a victim, duplicate probes and the way of investigation neglecting the characteristics, It is imminent to observe the arranged guideline or manual, besides the investigation agencies should cultivate the specialists and develop the investigation technique based on the characteristics of a victim. Moreover, not only the fact that sexual violence crime victims don’t have the information on the progress of the investigation but the fact that victims are treated unduly during the investigation due to the investigation agency’s negligence of the protection of victims lead to distrust in the criminal justice. So, The investigation agencies should pay attention to the investigation process ; assigning female investigation officers to have female victims fairly considered and not damaged again in consideration of the fact that sexual violence crime victims are mainly female ; permitting a reliable person sit together during the interrogation ; carefully modifying the detail description of questions. If victims continue to be disregarded during the crime investigation, the investigation agencies fail to win the national trust. therefore investigation agencies should try to maximally protect the crime victim’s rights within the range of not infringing the suspect’s rights. When the police investigation practices respecting the suspect’s human rights and taking care of a crime victim are settled, the national police can be seen as a agency which the nation can trust and rely on.