About 5 percent of all sexual abuse victims reported in South Korea last year were male, with the number of male victims having significantly increased since 2011, a government report showed Thursday.

According to the report released by the Ministry of Gender Equality, the number of reported male victims increased from 749 in 2011 to 1,066 in 2014. In 2011, they accounted for 3.8 percent of all Korean victims, but the proportion increased to 5.1 percent last year. This was the first time the Korean government has released a report on male sexual abuse victims.

Among victims reported from 2011-2014, 60 percent of them experienced sexual harassment, such as being touched inappropriately or being kissed or held in ways that caused discomfort, while 20 percent of them were raped by the abusers.

The victims were abused by both males and females, including a cases of a female boss at work and a male superior while serving military duty. The report also included a case where a cab driver was forcefully and sexually assaulted by a drunk female passenger when he tried to drop her off at her destination.

South Korean law currently doesn’t acknowledge same-sex rape or any forms of sexual penetration other than vaginal as rape. Accordingly, same-sex rape is defined as “rape-like” by Korean law and carries lighter penalties.

According to a 2013 government survey, 70 percent of male sexual abuse victims who participated in the research said they began to harbor hatred toward random people, while 17.3 percent said they no longer felt safe.

Meanwhile, 53 percent of male victims who sought help at a state-run support center said they were depressed, while 26 percent said they were experiencing anger problems.



(dyc@heraldcorp.com)