National Human Rights Commission chairman Lee Sung-ho on Tuesday expressed concern over the police’s recent decision to hospitalize individuals with mental illness should they show signs of violent or criminal behavior. He said such a measure may trigger unnecessary stigmatization against the mentally ill.
The police’s decision was announced last week following the recent Gangnam murder case, in which a 23-year-old woman was stabbed to death by a man with a history of schizophrenia who said he killed her because he hated women.
Citing the man’s history of mental illness, the police concluded that the case could not be classified as a misogynist crime, and instead announced a set of measures to eradicate violent crimes by the mentally ill.
A number of nongovernment organizations, including representative groups of women and people with disabilities, have protested the decision -- calling it discriminatory against people with mental disabilities or disease.
“The police’s announcement may trigger prejudice against those with mental illness, such as how all mentally ill people are dangerous or should be isolated,” Lee said in a statement. “There have (also) been an increasing number of online remarks that express hatred against those with mental conditions.”
Studies have questioned the correlation between mental illness and serious crimes. In a 2014 study by the American Psychological Association on crimes committed by 143 offenders with serious mental disorders, only 7.5 percent were directly related to the symptoms of mental illness.
Lee also expressed his concern over the growing public dispute on misogyny and hateful remarks against the marginalized. Many women’s rights groups have claimed that the Gangnam murder case must be understood as a result of serious gender disparity in Korea.
“While the focus should be on starting a social discussion over the cause of such cases and ways to prevent them, it is worrying to see that (the discussion) is spreading more toward revulsion against a certain gender or prejudice and isolation against the mentally disabled,” he said.
Lee added that his organization plans to survey the public’s perception and the overall reality of the abasement and abhorrence against the socially-weak including women, immigrants and the disabled, to seek for policy alternatives.
