Women's hotline receives nearly 300k calls a year, half for domestic violence

The 1366 Women's Emergency Hotline received 293,407 calls in 2024, according to a government-affiliated agency against sexual and domestic violence, with more than half concerning domestic violence.

The number of annual calls since 2022 has hovered around 290,000, according to the Women's Human Rights Institute of Korea. The number has been fairly consistent, with 289,848 in 2022 and 294,328 in 2023.

Established in 1998, the hotline takes reports of violence that is sexual or domestic in nature, including stalking and dating violence, although about 35 percent covered other matters. Men can also use the service, and foreign callers can call and request for a line offering consultation in their own language.

A total of 148,884 calls (50.7 percent) were regarding domestic violence, dwarfing any other cases directly related to being victimized by crimes. Stalking was a distant second on the list with 14,553 (5 percent), followed by sexual violence at 14,117 (4.8 percent), and dating violence at 11,338 (3.9 percent).

Of the domestic violence cases, 71.8 percent concerned both physical and emotional abuse. Spouses were perpetrators in two-thirds of cases, with parents accounting for 18.6 percent and children accounting for 6.7 percent.

Rape accounted for 45.6 percent of sexual violence-related calls, followed by 36.5 percent accounted for by other forms of sexual assault and 11.1 percent regarding sexual harassment. Some 83.1 percent were by people that the victims knew, including 18.9 percent from work.

There were also requests for consultations related to personal matters, with 17.4 percent of callers seeking consultation for emotional and mental health, and 1.6 percent asking to talk about family matters. The remaing 13.8 percent of cases were classed as miscellaneous, including simple inquiries.

A total of 14,290 callers in 2024 were for foreign nationals. Vietnamese accounted for roughly one-third with 5,244, with Chinese and people from the Philippines following, each at 2,467 (15.8 percent) and 1,548 (9.9 percent). Cambodians also accounted for 6.9 percent, or 1,080. Men accounted for about 6 percent of callers, with one-third of them calling as victims of crime.

Some 84 percent of the calls were made by the victims themselves, but 12.8 percent were made by police and other related organizations. Family and relatives made 2 percent of the calls, while calls made by acquaintances and spouses accounted for 0.8 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

About 0.2 percent of the calls were made by total strangers.