http://rokdrop.com/2008/09/23/fewer-usfk-servicemembers-booked-by-korean-police/

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Gents I just got back from work and found this to be a very interesting thread. First of all, I used the 2006 stats because at the time of the posting that was all that was available. Now the 2007 stats are posted.

Also good point about the arrest statistic. However, arrests compared to convictions for Koreans will essentially be the same number because Korea has a 99% conviction rate for those arrested:

If you were falsely accused of a crime, would you prefer the trial be held in:
A. China
B. South Korea, or
C. Japan
Give up? The correct answer is D. None of the above.
That’s because in all three countries, the conviction rate is 99%. You have virtually no chance of being acquitted, because prosecutors have incredible power over the trial process and judges trustingly assume the prosecutors wouldn’t have brought a case if they weren’t sure the accused was guilty. This recent column by Mike Weisbart of the Korea Times highlights South Korea’s shocking lack of basic safeguards to prevent the innocent from being railroaded. In Japan, courts have been known to convict suspects of murder on the basis of motive and opportunity alone, that is without witnesses or physical evidence. For all the highly visible problems with the West’s system of jury trials, it’s still far better than the quiet but constant persecution of innocent people across Asia, even in the region’s democracies. [Far Eastern Economic Review]

I will up date the stats for Korea on the posting to show what the number would be with a 99% conviction rate.

I think the best way to look at the crime rate is by what the KNPA considers major crime: rape, burglary, assault, theft, & murder. This eliminates all the fudging that goes on with the parking tickets to the stats.

Of major crime in 2007 Korea had 385,704 people arrested. Using my new equation:

385,704 * 99% conviction rate = 381,847 convictions

49,000,000 / 385,704 = 1 in 128 Koreans committing a serious crime.

For USFK crime I use the 27,500 because I cannot find a hard number online of what the USFK number plus dependents is. I have heard that it is around 40,000 but could find nothing solid so I stay with the 27,500 number. Of the 27,500 servicemembers 23 were convicted of major crimes which comes out to a conviction rate of 1 in 1196.

Also in regards to how Koreans feel about GI crime keep in mind that most Koreans have no interaction with GIs and most GI crime happens in the ville where very few Koreans even see GI crime happen. GI crime is not felt by the general Korean population and is instead the perception of GI crime is manufactured by the media and NGOs.

A perfect example is the subway incident above. Those soldiers were attacked first by the protesters before being kidnapped. I highly recommending reading this link:

Seoul District Prosecutor’s office announced Sunday it would not seek jurisdiction, nor prosecute a US serviceman, Private Murphy, who hit former assemblyman Seo Kyeing-won during a scuffle initiated by the latter and involving 20 university students and two other servicemen.

A prosecution official said it had been proven that Seo repeatedly punched Murphy in the face first, and that the private was kidnapped and forcibly detained by the students, therefore invalidating any claims made by the South Koreans. [Chosun Ilbo]

In regards to the SOFA questions, yes the Korean police on occasion hand over GIs. The reason I bring up the urinating on a building example from time to time is because one of my soldiers got arrested by the Korean police for urinating on a building. He called me I went to the station and the police gave him to me to bring back to post. For major crimes I have never seen the Korean police hand a GI back to USFK to be tried. That is why I think the major crime statistic is the most reliable one to judge GI crime rates with.

Anyway very good discussion which just continues to make me wonder why journalists and USFK public affairs types who are paid to do their jobs don’t crunch these numbers instead of people like us with some free time on the Internet?

you compared two things: GIs who were convicted at ROK criminal court, and the crime rate acquired from Korean National Police Agency.

Specifically, it was this statement that raised my antennae: The KNPA has convicted 489,575 Koreans for serious crimes out of a population of 49 million Koreans. I thought that sentence was odd because KNPA does not convict anybody. KNPA is the police, not the court. So I went to the KNPA website (in Korean) to check out that number.

That 489,575 number you cited is not the conviction rate for 2006. In fact, it was not even the “arrest rate”. It was an “occurrence rate”, compiled by the number of police reports filed. The arrest rate corresponding to that number is 354,131. (In fact, even the English site of KNPA clearly marked the stats as “occurred” and “arrested”, and I see nothing about “convicted”.)

In essence, you were comparing apples and oranges.

So let’s try and compare apples to apples, although I admit this is pretty rudimentary.

First, Korea’s crime rate in general. For 2007, there were 354,131 arrests in Korea. Korea has 49 million people. So Korea’s crime rate, deduced from the arrest rate is: 354131/49mil = 0.72%

Now, the GI crime rate. The number of arrests from Jan. through Aug. of 2007, according to the article, was 205. That’s 205 arrests for 2/3 of the year. So we can fairly guess that for the year 2007, there were around 300 arrests of USFK, give or take. Your GI crimes post said there were about 27,500 GIs in Korea. So the GI crime rate, deduced from the arrest rate is: 300/27500 = 1.09%

I’m not going to say that .37% difference signifies that GI crime is rampant in Korea, because that would be an incorrect exaggeration. But I would dare say that it does puncture a hole in your overarching thesis that GIs are less likely to commit crimes than average Koreans.

The point is there is not a lot of crime committed by soldiers and many of these “crimes” were not committed at all. Many of the “perpetrators” were actually victims of Koreans.

How about we hope the Korean media will start reporting accurately and honestly and we hope US citizens will stop being abused by the Korean “justice” system.

Sheesh.