'Enhance professionalism of public officials in charge of child abuse X Granting investigative power' Representative Kim Ye-ji proposed two bills
Nov 20, 2024
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On the 19th, Representative Kim proposed a partial amendment to the Child Welfare Act to strengthen the professionalism of public officials in charge of child abuse on Child Abuse Prevention Day and a partial amendment to the Act on the Person to Perform the Duty of Judicial Police Officers and the Scope of Their Duty.
According to Representative Kim Ye-ji's office, the number of suspected child abuse cases in Korea increased by about 24% from 36,920 in 2019 to 45,771 in 2023, but the actual number of abuse cases decreased from 72.2% in 2021 to 56.2% in 2023. Representative Kim said, "This is because the term of office of a public official in charge of child abuse is short and there is not enough opportunity to demonstrate professionalism. According to data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the average number of years of service for child abuse officials in 17 local governments is only 14.9 months, making it difficult to gain sufficient experience."
The "Partial Amendment to the Child Welfare Act" proposed by Representative Kim Ye-ji calls for at least one expert officer with more than five years of experience to be appointed by each local government to enhance the professionalism of public officials in charge of child abuse.
In addition, the "Partial Amendment Act on the Person Who Will Perform the Duty of Judicial Police Officer and the Scope of His/her Duty" included granting investigation authority to child abuse officials only for child abuse crimes to solve the problem of overlapping statements of victims due to the dualization of the current investigation entity, child abuse officials, and the investigation entity, the police.
Rep. Kim Ye-ji said, `Although the number of suspected child abuse cases has increased, children have continued to be exposed to the risk of abuse because they have not been judged to be abused.' `A professional child abuse official should be able to conduct an investigation and investigation at the same time to prevent duplicate statements by victims and quickly find out the truth of the case," he stressed. We will do our best to pass this bill, which directly reflects the voices of the field, including public officials in charge of child abuse and the police," he said, expressing his strong will to legislate.
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