220,000 Koreans Sign Petition Demanding Reforms Against False Rape Accusations

The problem you run into with false rape accusations is that authorities are likely hesitant to investigate much less prosecute because they will be accused of “blaming the victim”:

More than 220,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the government and the National Assembly to toughen the law against false accusations of sex crimes.

As of Thursday, 220,450 people have signed the petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website. The person who posted the plea on May 25 said Korea needs a law that punishes those who take advantage of its faulty justice system with heavier penalties.

“False accusations destroy the lives of the accused and their families. Nevertheless, accusers rarely face legal consequences, and when they do, they get off lightly,” the person said.

The call came after YouTube star Yang Ye-won’s controversial claims that she was forced to model for pornographic pictures at a Seoul photo studio in 2015. After it was revealed that she asked the accused photographer to give her more photo opportunities, which she did not mention during her YouTube “confession,” many people have doubted her claims and expressed fear of false allegations.

According to the Ministry of Justice’s investigation guidelines, prosecutors and police cannot initiate investigations into alleged false accusations of sex crimes until they conclude that the accused is evidently innocent.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.