의료인 성범죄의 위험요소와 법적 규제의 개선방향

Abstract

The ‘Medical treatment’ by medical staff refers to all medical practices of preventing, examining, and treating diseases based on medical expertise, as well as medical practices that remove harm that may threaten the patient’s life. Therefore, the patient fully trusts the medical staff who do this medical practice. And the relationship between doctors and patients is close. And during the medical practice, there is also physical contact through medical treatment or medical practice. However, there is a number of cases where some medical personnel use this to commit sexual crimes pretending to be medical practices. Despite the obvious sexual crimes, the degree of punishment for it is absurdly weaker than those of other professionals. For example, the medical law before the amendment in 2000 put penalties up to the cancellation of the license when sentenced to more than an imprisonment (without forced labor) sentence, but according to the medical law after the amendment, the license is not revoked even if criminal offenses other than those prescribed in the medical law occur. This low level of punishment carries the risk of increasing the likelihood of recidivism, and in fact, recidivism occurs occasionally. Sexual crimes by medical personnel have a risk factor as a ‘Grooming sexual crime’ in that they occur in the trust relationship between medical personnel and patients. In addition, since physical contact in the course of medical practice is difficult to distinguish from sexual molestation, it is difficult to prove criminal activity, which poses a risk as a hidden crime. Not only that, when these sexual crimes are cleverly incorporated into business activities, the collection of evidence becomes difficult. In that aspect, it also poses a danger as awhite-collar crime. In the case of foreign countries for such sexual crimes, the license is preferentially suspended regardless of the final punishment. In cases where penalties are confirmed, strong sanctions are imposed, such as cancellation of licenses and inability to re-acquire licenses. Contrary to this, Korea does not have a separate regulation restricting such strong sanctions or qualifications for sexual crime by medical personnel. To solve this problem, it is necessary to improve criminal and medical legal regulations on sexual crimes of medical personnel. For example, the criteria for criminal sanctions against normal, excessive, and careless medical practices by medical personnel that cause sexual shame in patients should be clearly presented. In addition, through the revision of the medical law, strong sanctions regulations such as revocation of licenses for medical personnel who have committed sexual crimes, should be established. In line with this, basic medical ethical principles and standards for medical personnel in the course of medical practice should be systematically prepared, and guidelines for prevention of sexual crimes taking into account the professional specificity of medical personnel should also be prepared. This series of measures will serve as a self-protection device for medical personnel to demonstrate their expertise in their field of expertise and to conduct correct medical practices.