The South Korean government has launched an app that allows victims of stalking offences to be notified if their stalker comes within range. More than 400 people are enrolled in the scheme, which has been operating since June.
Control centres in Seoul and Daejeon cover more than 5,000 people under electronic monitoring and handle 19,000 alerts a day, according to The Guardian. “Most are filtered out by staff at the centres, but about 300 a day are serious enough to send out a probation officer.”
Stalking cases are “on the rise” in South Korea. In the four years since a dedicated stalking law was introduced in 2021, reports have tripled, reaching 44,687 last year. Many South Koreans believe that the government needs to do more to address the root causes behind the epidemic.
The new app notifies the victim if their stalker is within a 2km radius, flagging their precise location on a real-time map. If the offender comes closer than a kilometre, the app notifies police; probation authorities then call the victim to establish their safety and can dispatch officers to the area.
Non-technological measures are also planned to increase victim safety. Next April the government will change the legal process to allow stalking victims to “directly petition courts for restraining orders” instead of relying on law enforcement agencies to file requests on their behalf, said The Straits Times. And in July a new taskforce was launched to focus on “addressing gaps in laws, systems and on-the-ground responses” around stalking offences, said Korea JoongAng Daily. The country’s justice ministry has also developed a “specialised psychological treatment programme to identify risk factors for recidivism” in stalkers. |
