Stalking punishment act states stalking as an act to incur anxiety or fear in victim consistently or repeatedly without just reason against the stalkee’s will. Previously, such act has been assumed as an excessive expression of affection or wooing onto the other person as stated in a proverb ‘tens of strikes will tumble any tree’. However as it has become a social notion that mental and physical suffering afflicted by staling is as serious as that by criminal act, social demand to regulate it as crime has arisen. In Korea, from 1999 to 2021 when stalking punishment act has been enacted, stalking-related legislations have been proposed over 20 times, but such legislation has not been proceeded for over 20 years. As stalking prevention act, legislated in 2021 which is late compared to other countries like Germany or Japan, has been enacted for over a year, it requires many revisions as 15 revision proposals have been submitted to the congress. In this study, it has analyzed preceding research, revisions, and legislation of other countries to study major issues in current stalking punishment act and deduced its revisions. Issues with the current stalking punishment act include; the subject of stalking crime is limited to the victim and his/her family; second, the law can penalize the criminal only when the act itself is committed; third, there is limitation of crime not prosecuted against objection; fourth, online stalking is difficult to be punished despite the public legal demand; fifth, it is meager the regulation to report the stalkee in modifying emergency measure defined by the law; sixth, more powerful measures against the perpetrator is necessary. Such issue can argue that related content is insufficient in the regards that the law protects stalking victim and prevents stalking developing into violent crime with preemptive measure, which its prime legislative motive. Therefore, purpose of this study is to deduce a revision to improve insufficient aspects in protection of stalking victim. In this study, preceding studies, domestic legislations, and stalking-related regulations in Japan and Germany have been studied chronologically to derive such revision, and thus, its primary goal is to study overall legal system on stalking crime and changes in public perception, and solve issues of current legislation. Its second goal is to propose measures to adequately respond to possible stalking-related issues in Korea.
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