「노인복지법」상 노인학대에 관한 규정의 검토와 개선방안

As our society became rapidly an aging society, problems of the aged are increasing in numbers. Among them, the aged abuse comes to the fore as a serious problem of the society. Therefore, on 29 January 2004, in amendment of 「Welfare of the Aged Act : WAA」, after making a legal basis on prevention and measures of the aged abuse, the government revised and complemented it three times. Also it established the aged protection institution and the policy for them were made and enforced to protect the aged abuse victims according to international standards. However, questions are being asked regarding effectiveness of measures for prevention of the aged abuse and protection of the aged abuse victims. Some People think that such questions result from insufficiency of the existing provision of WAA as to the aged abuse. Therefore, in this paper, after looking over the enactment and revision of provisons as to the aged abuse in WAA, I suggest points to modify and to make up this Act to achieve effectively the protection of the aged victims and the improvement of assailants. It is as follows : (i) to specify an age norm of the aged in this Act, (ii) to define types of the aged abuse and to list specific actions of each types in this Act, (iii) to reconcile prohibited acts(Art. 39-9) as types of abuse or to delete prohibited acts etc.. And, finally, I examine whether the establishment of independent Act concerning the aged abuse is need or not, and I propose direction to be pursued in the establishment of the countermeasures for prevention of the aged abuse.