4.03.2013

What is quasi-rape? Is Park Si-hoo charged with rape?

This week in "Police Press Rape Charge Against Park Si-hoo" the Choson Ilbo reports that
"Police have recommended that Park be indicted on the charges of quasi-rape and injury resulting from it as the victim was unconscious and able neither to resist nor consent at the time of the incident, and because she was injured while being raped."
What is quasi-rape (준강간/準强姦)?

The term in Korean law seems to refer to rape or sexual assault wherein the assault survivor was unable to give consent. A longer discussion of the term quasi-rape is available at Oh My Law. Perhaps quasi-rape might be charged in cases of alcohol or substance abuse, but it has also been applied for the assault of the developmentally challenged, as cited in the example below.

A quasi-rape case was reported in February 2013 "'못된 이웃 어른들' 지적장애 자매 성폭행 징역 4~6년" wherein four 50-60 year old men were sentenced to 4-6 years in prison for sexually assaulting two developmentally disabled sisters:
"They had become friends with the parents for the sole purpose of gaining access to their house to abuse the sisters. Mentally, the sisters are at the level of a 4~7 year old, and the assaulters abused the fact that they are not proficient in language enough to explain to their parents what was happening."
The Japanese Penal Code 1908 defines quasi-rape:
"A person who commits sexual intercourse with a female by taking advantage of a loss of consciousness or inability to resist, or by causing a loss of consciousness or inability to resist, shall be punished in the same matter as prescribed in the preceding Article."





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