현행 법체계 상 성희롱의 의의와 범죄화에 관한 소고

Recently, there are much heightened interest in sexual harassments and we have more active discussions on that matter than ever. In Korea, however, we do not have a consistent consensus on sexual harassments yet. Further, there are not any clear definition and scope of criminalization of a sexual harassment as well. Therefore, even though the regulation on a sexual harassment under the current law has important social implication and role, people have regarded it as an inordinate regulation on the person who made the sexual harassment or even as a factor that divides the society. In this context, this study reviewed the definition of sexual harassment under current legal framework, focusing especially on how much level of sexual words and actions should be considered as a sexual harassment compared to sexual violence crimes under the current laws, as well as whether sexual harassments should be put into the realm of a criminal punishment by including them in sexual violence crimes. Based on these two main issues, the study aims to make a critical review on the necessity of criminal actions on sexual harassments and remind the social implication and role of the regulation on sexual harassments under the current laws. Sexual harassments under the current law have the concept that includes both the sexual words and actions comprising the level of a crime based on sexual prejudice or sexual discrimination and the sexual words and actions that are less than such a level. The former may be said to be an action that needs a punishment according to a criminal and/or a special criminal law as a crime that infringes sexual self-determination right of an individual as well as an action of sexual harassment. The latter may be said to be an action that must be eradicated via non-criminal measures so that the overall society may establish a consensus of equality starting from the employment area. To eradicate sexual harassment from our society, it is important to make a right punishment on every sexual harassment. However, what is more important is inducing the change of recognition on sexual harassments by people. If we put all the areas of sexual harassments into the scope of criminal punishment, this would harm the victim's will to take actions against light level of sexual words and actions to the contrary. Considering this, we need to try to provide social climate where more people react sensitively against even to a much lighter level of sexual harassments. Also, it is needed to provide policies which enables taking actions that are not too heavy on those sexual words and actions that are minor and light.