형법적 관점에서 본 전국범죄피해조사의 문제점과 개선방안

Korean Crime Victim Survey(KCVS), a statistics designated by the Commissioner of the Statistics Korea, produces information on crime victimization including unreported crime incidents. KCVS provides data that is used in establishing policies for preventing crime and for protecting and supporting crime victims. The questionnaires of KCVS are constructed based on the taxonomy of crimes that systematically classifies reported crime incidents according to the combination of answers to a set of questions. However, the classification of crimes used in KCVS shows significant discrepancies from Criminal Act. The discrepancies between Criminal Act and KCVS was not unknown but the KCVS Reorganization Committee failed to resolve this issue when modifying the KCVS questionnaires in 2008. The inconsistencies between criminal acts and victimization surveys, which are also observed in the US and Germany, result from fundamental differences between the legal viewpoints and the perspectives of victimization surveys in terms of understanding crime incidents. Although it can be acceptable to use crime classifications divergent from Criminal Act in the effort of law amendment, a taxonomy of crimes more consistent with current criminal laws should be more helpful when using KCVS data in policy making. Therefore, the taxonomy and definitions of crimes in KCVS should be modified in such a way as to conform to Criminal Act.