Sexual Assault of Female Believers

A document summarizing the concept, legal issues, and responses to power-based sexual violence in which female believers are sexually violated by exploiting power asymmetry within religious organizati

Sexual Assault of Female Believers

Overview

Sexual assault of female believers refers to acts in which leader-level figures within religious organizations—such as pastors, seminary professors, and members of religious orders—sexually violate female believers by exploiting relationships of religious and personal trust with them. This is not an individual's deviation but a crime that violates sexual self-determination, and it is classified as a typical form of power-based sexual violence in which spiritual authority and organizational hierarchy are combined. Victims often hesitate to report out of fear of losing membership in their faith community and of 'religious stigmatization,' and the gap between actual incidents and official statistics is pointed out as large in this area.

Main Content

Concept and Characteristics

Sexual violence within religious organizations, unlike ordinary workplace sexual harassment and sexual violence, has a distinctive structure of absolutized spiritual authority. In an environment where a leader's words are interpreted as the will of God, refusal itself is easily defined as religious disobedience, and victims often take a long time to recognize the situation as a crime even after being approached under the pretext of 'counseling' or 'exorcism (casting out demons).' When demands for confidentiality during counseling, reputation management within the community, and organizational advocacy for the perpetrator are combined, the fact of the harm is concealed for a long period.

Structure That Sustains Silence

First, the hierarchical culture of denominations and norms of 'respect for leaders' block the raising of issues. Second, when victims raise an issue, secondary harm occurs as they are excluded from the community or stigmatized as 'people with spiritual problems.' Third, small churches or missionary organizations often have no internal reporting channel at all, and perpetrators frequently hold both personnel and disciplinary authority. Fourth, a culture of religious forgiveness and 'covering it up if one repents' operates as pressure to seal the matter before judicial judgment.

Legal Issues

Depending on the nature of the act, the Criminal Act may apply provisions such as rape (Article 297), similar rape (Article 297-2), forced indecent act (Article 298), and sexual intercourse by occupational force, etc. (Article 303); for indecent acts exploiting an occupational or power relationship, the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Violence Crimes also applies. If the victim is a minor, the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles against Sexual Abuse takes precedence and the statutory penalty is aggravated. In practice, the issue is the scope of recognition of 'force,' and the key factor is whether religious authority actually suppressed the victim's free decision-making. In addition, if the organization to which they belong forces a settlement between the perpetrator and the victim or demands a confidentiality pledge, this may be problematic as separate coercion, intimidation, or undue pressure.

Major Cases of Public Attention

In 2018, the case in which Pastor Lee Jaerock (이재록) of Manmin Central Church (만민중앙교회) was indicted on charges of sexually assaulting multiple female believers and received a confirmed prison sentence is a representative precedent of sexual violence exploiting religious authority. Thereafter, with the spread of the 'MeToo' movement around 2018, internal whistleblowing continued in various denominations, including Protestantism, Catholicism, and Buddhism, and cases between seminary professors and students and between missionaries and local helpers were also brought into public discussion. However, the facts of individual cases should be described according to whether a final judgment has been rendered, and definitively describing matters under trial carries a risk of defamation.

Impact of Harm and Secondary Harm

Victims often experience post-traumatic stress, depression, guilt, and loss of faith together. During investigation and trial, their religious experiences and whether the act was 'voluntary' become subjects of intensive questioning, sometimes causing secondary harm. Recently, statement protection measures such as public defenders for victims, statement assistants, and increased use of video recording are expanding.

Response and Prevention

Key tasks presented include mandatory sexual violence prevention education at the denomination level, establishment of independent reporting and investigation bodies including external figures, separation of perpetrator discipline from victim recovery support, and raising awareness of the structural limitations of counseling between pastors and believers. Victims can receive support through sexual violence counseling centers, 1366, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, and remote reporting channels of the prosecution and police.

Recent Trends

In 2024–2025 as well, allegations of sexual violence centered on large churches and seminaries have been reported one after another, and demands for the formation of truth investigation committees and fact-finding surveys at the denominational general assembly level continue. In the legal community, while rulings recognizing religious hierarchy as 'force' are accumulating, the trend of denying the effect of settlements or confidentiality clauses when they are made against the victim's free will is strengthening. In addition, cases are increasing in which sexual violence prevention education within churches is made a requirement for denominational approval, and denomination–external organization cooperation models for victim support are being introduced. The need for international cooperation on cases combined with digital sexual crimes and cases at overseas mission sites has also emerged as a new issue.