KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

The main factor that threatens safety of women currently is violence committed against women. Although the government is putting in practice various policies to create a society where women are safe, the number of violence against women is not decreasing. It is important to understand current situation of violence committed against women in order to come up with effective policies for women's safety. However it has been difficult to quote accurate statistical figure since consideration of relevant charges and results of large-scale surveys have been the only way to understand statistic on violence against women so far. In this research, family violence cases collected from family violence helpline operated by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency are analysed. Women's safety index was calculated on the basis of report statistics in each administrative district to find out if there is a correlation between environment of local community and women's safety.

Occurrence of violence is not only affected by personal or sociocultural phenomenons but by environment of local community as well. Thus it is important to find out danger factors in local community where violence occurs and to provide ways to deal with them. In this research, women's safety index in different administrative districts are analyzed and through studying the environment of smaller local communities, factors affecting occurrence of violence are investigated.

The following policies are advised on the basis of result of the analysis mentioned above. Firstly, services for women's safety can be improved by using information-telecommunication techniques. Occurrence of violence against women can be reduced by monitoring and analyzing video footage of surveillance cameras installed in local community and analyzing their violence prevention effect. Recurrence of family violence can be reduced by alarm services. The use of 'safe trip home' service which is operated in many districts at the moment and location share application can be promoted by integrating them together. Women's safety map can be prepared more accurately with active participation of local residents. Secondly, projects designed to improve women's safety can be improved according to characteristic of each local community. Projects for women's safety suitable for local community can be operated by analyzing and monitoring effect of projects that are already in practice in local community. Safety projects for all stages of life cycle must be put into practice considering demographical characteristic of local community. It is necessary to include various education contents designed on the basis of characteristic of local community in safety training programs for women according to stages of life cycle. Thirdly, cooperation system in local community should be strengthened. Meetings held by experts in women's safety should be regularized in local community and more relevant experts should be trained. Family violence solution team which is in operation currently by police department should be diversified with success stories developed and shared to enable other local communities to benchmark. In addition, temporary residence for victims should be supported by local community to protect them from further family violence.