친족성폭력 범죄에서 신고 지연 기간과 판단자의 성별이 사건 판단에 미치는 영향

The Republic of Korea has emphasized the severity of sexual violence against relatives by including provisions for aggravated punishment based on relative relationships in ACT ON SPECIAL CASES CONCERNING THE PUNISHMENT OF SEXUAL CRIMES. However, due to the specific nature of relative relationships in sexual violence against family members, it is evident that young victims face significant barriers to reporting such crimes. Nevertheless, the current law stipulates a 10-year statute of limitations for these sexual crimes, treating them the same as other types of sexual crimes, it has been criticized that there is inadequate protection for victims. Therefore, this study empirically examined the effect of delayed reporting and participant’s gender on case judgment in intrafamilial sexual violence. A total of 320 participants between 20s to 50s were presented with manipulated mock trial scenarios regarding the length of delayed reporting(1 day, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years), and then asked to respond to questionnaires on victim’s credibility and punishment judgment. The results of this study are as follows. First, no differences in case judgments were observed based on the length of delayed reporting, nor was an interaction effect found between the length of delayed reporting and the participant’s gender. However, male participants were more likely to assess the victim’s credibility as lower, judge the defendant as not guilty, and impose a lower sentence than female participants. Furthermore, the study confirmed a mediating effect of negative perceptions of delayed reporting in the relationship between the participant's gender and sentencing judgment. In other words, male participants were more likely to have a negative perception of delayed reporting, and the more they negatively viewed delayed reporting, the more likely they were to impose a lower sentence. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study are discussed.