罰金刑의 改善方案

Abstract

The monetary penalty is considered to be effective in that problems arising from shorter-term imprisonment would be solved and less labor and facility operation costs be needed for prisons. Thus, now it is one of the most common penalty imposed by judges. However, problems have been encountered using this system. The aim of this study was to review the problems of the current monetary penalty system and to suggest some reform measures to improve the system. Since our Criminal Code specifies the upper limit of monetary penalty only, judges cannot but impose the monetary penalty within these limits, not taking defenders’ financial capacity into consideration. Therefore, the principle of “equal punishing effects” cannot be maintained with the current monetary penalty system. In addition, the reality is that many poor criminals decide to undergo the alternative penal servitude, which means a lower effect of punishment. In order to avoid these problems, the system should be reformed to be more flexibly operated to reflect the differences of financial ability among individual criminals, solve the problems involving the collection of penalties and be more widely applied to misdemeanor and similar criminals. We suggest the reform measures such as expansion of monetary penalty system, introduction of daily collections for poor criminals, improvement of optional penal servitude, introduction of penal social service system, suspen- sion of collection, extended or installment payment of penalty, reinforcement of legal entity punishment, diversion of some penalties into fines, and other measures improving the collection of penalties.