Disclosing information on offenders has been a long-debated issue, despite it already being compulsory for certain sex offenders’ personal information to be disclosed to the public. People who agree with disclosing information believe that that can prevent recidivism, but there is no obvious difference in crime rates when information is disclosed. In addition, criminals whose information has been disclosed to the public tend to live in hiding, which makes it more difficult to keep an eye on them. It is necessary to find alternative methods to lower crime rates. We try to find out appropriate solution about the fundamental problems. Disclosing information on offenders is just a temporary method. First of all, the government should treat offenders more strictly.

By Lee Ju-eon
Sophomore, Kyungpook National University
violet_5368@naver.com

Have you ever thought it's good for security knowing a criminal’s identity? The country I live in guarantees human rights, so citizens can't always know much about offenders beyond their names. In the United States, a criminal’s identity, information and face are available to the public. They also protect a police officer’s identity when he or she is in the news. Which is better? I support the latter. Although some people insist that releasing the identities of offenders infringes their human rights, I think they have no right to privacy so they can keep violating the law. Therefore, I think that it’s reasonable for people to know the face, identity and information of a criminal.

By Shin Ji-won
Junior, Pusan National University
aadidasa@naver.com

Criminals who commit sexual assault have their personal information available to the public. As seen from last several incidences, people are so sensitive to sexual assaults that the legislation of the modern “scarlet letter” has been introduced. However, is this really an effective measure? There are a lot of trials in the Constitutional Court dealing with criminals’ information being available to the public.
As these trials are closely related to their basic rights, some people claim that this is obviously discrimination. It does make sense in some way because this legislation didn’t have much effect on the eradication of sexual assaults. In this way, making criminals’ personal information available to the public should not be extended to the cases of the other criminals.

By Kwon Su-ock
Junior, Dept. of English Lang. & Lit.
justayear@naver.com

Recently, the pros and cons of exposing the personal information of criminals have been discussed. The pro opinion is that it is necessary to prevent future crimes and the con opinion is that it is possible to violate human rights. My opinion is that it is wrong not to give criminals who have finished their punishments any opportunities and to isolate them as if they are social evil. However, if they commit a crime again instead of rehabilitating themselves, alternative methods would be needed to keep public order but not exposure of personal information. For example, increasing the maximum prison sentence or chemically castrating sex offenders. Also the Ministry of Justice has to create more alternatives.

By Sung Woo-hyun
Junior, Dongguk University
swh6886@naver.com