By Bae Hyun-jung

The shocking child rape case revealed to the public in September pushed the entire Korean society to the round table to discuss measures against sex crimes, especially those against children. However, few among the suggested solutions have their focus on the victim, some experts say.

Last December, a 57-year-old man called Cho Doo-soon raped an 8-year-old girl alias Na-young and permanently disabled her. The abuse not only damaged her sexual organs but also caused a deathly intestine rupture, which forced her to live the rest of her life with a colostomy bag to replace her missing organ.

He was sentenced by the Supreme Court in late September to 12 years in jail and three years of having his personal information revealed.

The punishment was largely criticized as being too lenient on the brutal child abuser and caused investigators, legal circles, and the government to tighten up the grasp over the regulation of sex offenders.

The Justice Ministry submitted the DNA information bill to the National Assembly last month to allow investigators to gather and manage the genetic information of felons, including sex offenders.

Courts started to hand down stricter punishment on sex offenders and drunk criminals.

President Lee Myung-bak also expressed his worries about the damages caused and urged all government departments to support sex crime victims.

The Supreme Court criminal sentence guideline committee set to reinforce the judging standards on sex offenders, especially prevent drunk criminals from seeking lighter sentences.

Despite all the commotion and worries, however, the victimized girl is not being sufficiently attended to, said experts.

"The suffering girl's recovery and welfare should have been the top priority in this issue," said Shin Eui-jin, psychiatrist in charge of Na-young's therapy.

"It took her two months after the tragic incident to come for counseling therapy, because no one - police, prosecutors, hospitals - simply offered such information or advice to her family."

The girl's father sought help in the ministry-run support center for children sex victims and until then, the child was subject to follow-up stresses caused by the case investigation, she said.

"Investigation or not, the prosecutors and doctors who were involved in the case should first of all have thought of protecting the girl from further shock," she said.

Na-young's family recently decided to file a suit against the government for inflicting further damage on her by asking repeated questions about the crimes, said an official of the Korean Bar Association yesterday.

Sex crime experts, including Shin, also suggest that doctors, judges, and investigators need to be educated on the care of sex crime victims.

Some pointed out that the qualification test including the national bar exam and the national medical exam do not require any sections on such specific issues.

"The so-called experts often lack the expert knowledge, especially in dealing with delicate issues such as child sex crime victims," Shin said.

Also, sex crime victims are left with little support and information after the crime, said others.

"Ordinary people have little access to the government-run relief centers and are short of expertise manpower," said an official of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center.

Na-young's family bears as well the financial costs required for additional surgeries and the management of her artificial organ, but is now reliant on a limited and unstable amount of funds offered by the government and citizens.

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