According to one study, the causes of child abuse can be grouped into parental, child, family and social environmental factors and analyzed from psychopathological, developmental, social-psychological and ecological perspectives. The psychopathological view sees parents' pathological personalities and past abuse as the main factors, while the developmental view says traits of the child, such as disability or premature birth, can trigger abuse. The social-psychological view explains that family conflict, economic stress and cultural attitudes that accept physical punishment can underlie abuse. The ecological view analyzes how individual, family, community and cultural systems interact to produce abuse.

Looking at where abuse occurs, abuse at home accounts for by far the largest share. About 79.5% of all cases occurred at home, showing that abuse is most likely to be committed by parents and guardians. By contrast, the shares at daycare centers, kindergartens and schools were relatively low at 4.6%, 0.5% and 7.6%, but they still call for vigilance. Some cases were also reported at child welfare and other welfare facilities, so the child protection system as a whole needs review and improvement.

Child abuse is divided into physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect, and is defined as conduct that can seriously affect a child's health and development. Physical abuse includes any act that injures a child's body or harms health and development, including not only direct physical punishment but also acts such as making a child stand for long periods. Emotional abuse means any act that harms a child's mental health, and it can be abuse on its own even without physical abuse. Verbal abuse such as blame or contempt is included as well as verbal sexual harassment. Sexual abuse includes verbal sexual harassment as well as physical contact and is treated as a serious crime subject to heavy punishment. Neglect, common with infants and toddlers, includes failing to provide basic protection, care and education.

Table 1. Child abuse cases in Korea over the past three years / Source: Ministry of Health and Welfare annual child abuse report

Child abuse cases in Korea over the past three years show that it remains a serious social problem. The number of reports fluctuated slightly each year but fell somewhat from 53,932 in 2021 to 48,522 in 2023. Yet the number of cases judged to be abuse and the share occurring at home remain high, and abuse by parents reached 85.9% in 2023, making it the main threat to children's safety. Repeat abuse also exceeds 15%, a very serious problem because children who have already been abused are exposed to danger again and again.

Child abuse is defined more broadly than in the Criminal Act and is punished under the Child Abuse Punishment Act.

To add: in the Jeong-in case, the Supreme Court on April 28, 2022 upheld a 35-year prison sentence for the adoptive mother for murder and other charges (life imprisonment at first instance, reduced to 35 years on appeal), and a five-year sentence for the adoptive father. After the case, a March 2021 amendment to the Child Abuse Punishment Act created the crime of child abuse murder (punishable by death, life imprisonment or at least seven years), and early response was strengthened, for example by requiring investigations to begin without delay once a report is received. Since October 2020, child abuse investigations have moved from private child protection agencies to child abuse officials in city, county and district offices. The paper's statistics are as of the time of writing.