Some Children are always weeping at home. Do you know what that means? It means child abuse is spreading throughout the country. In particular, 'The Murder Case of the Bucheon Child' raises the question of severity of child abuse, and it has given the whole nation a shock. It doesn't make sense that cruel actions on children have lead them to death. Child abuse has been gradually increasing. So, we must shed light on this incident, and other child abuse cases should be revealed too. Also, it seems to us that the Korean government needs to take greater measures in order to solve the problem as soon as possible.
1. The Murder Case in Bucheon
a. Are They Parents?
On the 7th of November, 2012, a drunken father indiscriminately assaulted his son for two hours. After the son died the next day, his father and mother mutilated the body of seven year old son in their bathroom. They threw their son's hands, feet and organs into a garbage bag or into the toilet of Bucheon citizen center, and they stored the rest of his body parts in their refrigerator. The citizens and netizens were shocked by this cruel and terrible affair after the incident was revealed. And the people reacted like, "How could they do this under the mask of humanity?" or "Can they live after they killed their own child?" Citizens blamed the parents and trembled at their heinous behavior.
b. Who Found the Chilly Child?
This affair actually might not have been revealed at all if another incident had not been exposed by the educational authorities. Last December, an 11 year old girl was attacked by her parents in Incheon, and luckily, she escaped her house by climbing down the gas pipe.. The educational authorities found that the girl had been absent from school without excuse for a long time because of her parent's long term mistreatment. Beginning from the start of this case, the authorities were investigating absenteeism for a long period, extensively all over the country, and the Bucheon child was included on the absentee list too. On September 13th, the Bucheon child victim could also be received contact from elementary school due to the investigations. The victim’s mother, Ms. Han, changed her words from "I reported to the police that my son disappeared " to "His uncle reported to the police" or "My husband's acquaintance reported it to the police". Thus, the school authorities asked the police to investigate further, and the police arrested her under suspicion of violating the Child Welfare Law. The next day, the police captured the father and they extracted a confession from him that he mutilated his son's body and put his remains in the refrigerator. The police found the remains of his corpse at the house of the father's friend. The parents of the child were arrested in the end. .
c. Homicide by Nonfeasance
Homicide by nonfeasance is when someone has caused death because he or she has neglected to perform his or her duties. For instance, some parents who are addicted to online games don't take care of their children, so they have neglected their duties as parents, to look after their children’s welfare.. There is a bigger example of this: the Sewol Ferry incident. The captain of the Sewol Ferry had to lead crews and passengers to escape safely and help to rescue all of them as a supervisor during the emergency. However, he escaped first and didn't care about the passengers at all. The Bucheon child incident is relevant to homicide by nonfeasance too. The mother of the child just looked on during the situation when the father of the child assaulted his son.. The Incheon district prosecutor is trying to apply the homicide by nonfeasance. The parents of child leaded their son to die alone, betraying their duty as parents.
2. Children Abuse, Anyone Can be Targeted
a. New Born Baby
Child abuse happens not only in the home but also outside, and even younger children can be targeted. Now a new born baby is no exception to becoming a victim of child abuse. Nurses have been caught striking and playing with new born babies, and haven’t taken care of them completely and have let them die in hospital. Little babies need to be protected and be healthy because they are very vulnerable. However, if someone regards them as a toy and acts harshly without any reason, it would be an inhumane action. Child abuse is the action of a person no better than a brute.
b. Two Faced Kindergartens
This is not end of the current state of child abuse. The shadow of child abuse also casts on the kindergarten, the place that looks happy and vibrant. The insane behavior of assaulting a child and slapping their faces is rampant for the reason that children are naughty in kindergarten. These crimes against children are unforgivable crimes in the educational site, which should protect children and nurture children correctly. Moreover, in recent days, there are many infant assault incidents on the television continually. The 'Daegu Kindergarten Assault Incident' and the 'Wanju Kindergarten Assault Incident' are two, to name a few. The parents of children will send their sons and daughters to kindergarten without knowing the violence, and the children are going to button their lips, from being afraid of assault. Children will writhe in the agony of pain every time they are hit, and they will have bad memories.
3. Tragedy for Indifference
a. Long Term Absentee
Long term absentee from primary school refers to a juvenile who has been absent from school for over 50 days in one year for economic and domestic reasons. The parent who leads their son to the death has huge fault, but it is people's indifference that allows this incident being neglected for three years. The neighbors are indifferent to a child's desperate crying next door, the school doesn't mind whether the children come to school or not. If there was an active communication between the child and other people, this problem wouldn't have happened. According to the Ministry of Education, they announced that there are two hundred and eighty-seven long term absentees from elementary school in Korea. They said that they are the children who have been absent for over seven days without proper reason, and ninety-one cases among these absentee incidents are missing now. In addition, 19 cases among the 91 cases are suspected of child abuse, so the investigation on them is going on, and three cases are being verified now. It means there are so many children who have abused and are missing like the Bucheon child victim. Our children are in a defenseless state.
b. Let Children Go to School
School is a place to teach children what is right and wrong and learn about overall social knowledge. Also, children can develop a warm heart by building friendships, consideration and empathy and can develop socially by hanging out with friends in school. If we send children to school, they can bail out of violence and live in a safer environment than any other. Furthermore, parents should make their children go to school through obligation. If parents do not send their children or allow them to be absent without special reason, it should be regarded as child abuse and be punished too. There is a term 'educational negligence' and is one of the articles in the child welfare law.
4. The Duty of Adults
a. Form Master Reporting System
Since the recognition that children are a parents’ possession, some of them abuse their kids and don't send them to school. And, their surroundings even the school just looks on under the rationalization that it is their parents’ educational philosophy. It is necessary for our children to be educated and protected by school in order to save abused children from their parents. First, we must remove children from dangerous parents through a ‘form master reporting system’. A form master reporting system is training teachers to report obligatorily to the police when a child has had a long term absence. We can know where the child is and it’s safety can be more assured via the forming master reporting system, so it is realistically a good solution.
b. Thorough Children Abuse Education
It is course the victims that know most about the present conditions of child abuse than any other. Children groan with pain but cannot tell other people when they are abused and assaulted by adults because the adults are scary and horrifying. Moreover, if the assailant is their parent, the situation is even worse. But if they are educated that they are a victim of child abuse in advance then there is a way to get out away from these horrible situations, and the problem will be solved easily. When schools educate students on how they could behave in an assault situation, children might be more inclined to ask adults to help them in the school. If we bring back the absentees to school and educate them about child abuse, there will be no more child abuse in our society.
Child abuse is a socially evil deed that breaks a child completely. We should not only penalize the assailant to the law, but should also prevent these abuses in advance. Then, our children will smile and get healthy. Police must investigate long term absentees, and figure out the truth and protect children, and punish the assailant strongly. Whoever the assailant is, it is the biggest crime to use violence against a child, and it is a problem that must be removed. Children are our hope and future. If we adults don’t protect children, then who will protect them?