Improvement Measures of the Military Crime Victim Protection System

Despite a series of efforts to protect and support victims of crimes committed in the military, the perception that the military crime victim protection system is inadequate still persists, so there is a sufficient need to review the current status of the military crime victim protection system and find ways to improve it. In particular, the need for protection and support for victims of military criminal crimes, who are exposed to physical violence and horrific deaths caused by firearms and other deadly weapons, is so great that there is no need for special grounds. Nevertheless, the issue of protection and support for victims of criminal crimes committed in the military has not been properly incorporated into the victim protection system of our criminal justice system, which has undergone rapid changes and evolution since the 1990s. The purpose of this article is to consider ways to improve the military crime victim protection system. To this end, we first examine the trend of military criminal crimes and the current status of the victim protection system (Ⅱ), and then present a brief evaluation of the current status of the military crime victim protection system (Ⅲ) and our own plans to improve this military crime victim protection system (Ⅳ). In conclusion, despite the continuous revision of systems and laws, the fundamental cause of the lack of protection and support for victims of military crimes can be found in the excessive expansion tendency of the current military judicial system. Therefore, it was pointed out that the direction should be changed, the scope of military judicial affairs should be reduced, and in principle, the general court should handle this issue, and the military should bear the obligation to actively cooperate with this, and at the same time, a positive perception and culture of protection for crime victims should be fostered. Only then can an efficient and practical protection and support system for victims of military crimes be established. In other words, it was considered that the system should be reorganized so that protection and support for victims of military crimes can also be carried out in principle in the judicial system centered on the general courts. It was also described that if such institutional reorganization is carried out first, the burden on military commanders and those involved in the case, who cannot help but worry between the somewhat conflicting obligations of protecting military organizations and protecting subordinate troops, can be reduced.