Gwangju Talks

What would you do if you were the victim of a crime, and how confident are you that justice would be served?

Xiaochen, exchange student from China

Nowadays, our society is developing rapidly. But with prosperity, the rates of crime have also soared. In my opinion, awareness of how to protect ourselves should be raised so that we do not become victims of crime. If I were a victim of crime, I would ask a related department for help, like a police office. They can protect us. I would be a witness as well. Describing the criminal to police can also help to solve the crime.

In general, people are not aware of something if it did not happen to them. Making the police and others aware of a crime that happened to you can help to raise awareness of crime, which can lower the rate of criminal incidents as well.

As for being a victim, I am really confident that I would get justice. Due to the increasing rate of criminal activity, the actions taken by the government have also improved. People… should trust their police and local government and ask the authorities for help whenever they need them. People should not live in a terrifying environment.

James, from Australia

If I were the victim of a crime in Korea, I would first talk to a Korean coworker or friend to ask them to assist me. As I cannot speak Korean well, I could not go to the police. I would not be confident of getting justice at all as Korean police have a very bad reputation and they, along with the justice system in Korea, are said to have a bias against foreigners.

Matt, English teacher from the UK

It depends on the type of crime. I would want to call the police. But I feel I would not be able to communicate with them. So I would call a Korean friend and have him call on my behalf. If I had a real emergency, I would be worried because the language problem would mean it would take a long time to get the details across. I wish there were a separate emergency number for foreigners.

I am not very confident I would get justice because I think the Korean police and court would show favoritism.

Jerome, freelancer from the Philippines

If I were the victim of a crime, I would immediately call 112 and would explain all the details of the situation that happened to me. As far as I know, my voice would be recorded and it would be used to investigate the incident. In my opinion, however, it is not enough to be safe. The thing which is very significant and which must be done is collecting the evidence ourselves. It is common knowledge that the pictures taken at crime scenes offer obvious hints to reveal the incident. Therefore, I strongly insist that we should take a number of pictures around us.

Lucas, English teacher

What to do is fairly easy; I would call the police. I speak Korean enough to talk with the police, and I have found most officers to be courteous and helpful. Would I get justice? That is a very difficult question. Our cultural concepts of justice are very different. It depends heavily on what kind of crime it was.

An example I can think of: imagine I am in a bar with my friends. Suddenly a man gets angry and punches me. He breaks my nose. I do not know him or why he did it. My experience is Korean people do not like to get involved or start trouble. No one would want to tell the police what they saw or who the man was. If he were identified, he could offer to pay for my hospital bills and a little extra. The police would in turn encourage me to take the money. It is very unlikely he would be charged with a crime, because after all, no one wants to testify and the prosecutor might not want to take on a case of my word versus his.

This is unsatisfying to me because to me it is not a question of money; it is a question of whether one can “buy” the right to put another person in the hospital when he or she is angry. I do not think this is unjust to Korean people; he was forced to compensate me for my damage.

Therefore answering this question is complicated. By my culture’s standards, I am unlikely to get justice, but then I am not in my country. I do wish Korean people were less shy to get involved when they see one person hurting another.