It is worrisome that Korean society has recently seen a surge in domestic violence cases. The number of people arrested for domestic abuse increased by nearly 30 percent from a year earlier to 8,762 last year, according to government figures. Moreover, the second-offense rate quadrupled over the past four years to 32.2 percent in 2012, suggesting there had been inadequate efforts to prevent family violence.

The cases of some husbands beaten by their wives have been cited as reflecting changes in gender relations. But their number can hardly be meaningful, as more than 15 percent of married women in the country are victimized by domestic violence every year. The ratio is about five times higher than that of other advanced nations such as Britain and Japan. Further attention needs to be paid to abuses of immigrant spouses, children, and elderly and disabled people.

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Cho Yoon-sun was right to note last week that domestic violence is no longer a matter confined to households, but has become a serious social problem. Despite the rapid dissolution of their traditional structure, families still serve as the basic units of society. Domestic abuse should not be left to undermine the foundations of social stability.

From this viewpoint, it was more overdue than timely that the government last Friday came up with a set of measures aimed at strengthening protection for victims of domestic violence and toughening punishment for assailants. Under the tightened rules, police officers are obliged to team up with a professional counselor and rush to the scene whenever they receive calls on domestic abuse. Assailants will be apprehended on the spot and put under longer detention for questioning if they are habitual offenders or found to have used a deadly weapon. They will also be subject to 5 million won ($4,360) in fines if they refuse to cooperate with police inquiries or comply with orders to stay away from the victims.

In order to reduce the rate of reoffending to 25.7 percent by 2017 as planned by the government, education and counseling for assailants should also be further strengthened.

It is appropriate for the government to have decided to apply tougher standards of punishment in case victims are immigrants, children or disabled persons. It can be understood as necessary for protecting basic human rights that foreign women living here illegally are exempted from being reported to the immigration office when they call for help to escape from violence by their spouses.

The government has also taken the right steps to better protect victims by deciding to set up more care facilities across the nation and limit the assailants’ access to children living with their spouses in the divorce process.

What appears to be missing from the package, however, is a program to provide counseling to help prevent domestic violence. It is important to ensure families vulnerable to domestic abuse will receive effective counseling from qualified experts.

Attention should also be paid to the connection between alcoholism and family violence. According to a 2011 survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 4.4 percent of Koreans aged 18-64, or 1.58 million people, had an alcohol problem for more than a year, but only 0.35 percent of them received proper treatment or counseling. Alcoholics with families, in particular, need special care so that the problem will not lead to domestic violence.