초록 열기/닫기 버튼

우리나라에서의 신변보호제도는 범죄피해자․증인․신고자 등에 대한 신변안전조치와 부수조치 등을 규정한「특정범죄신고자 등 보호법(이하 ‘특신법’이라 함)」이 2000년 제정․시행되면서 본격화 되었다. 그동안 특신법의 수차례 개정을 비롯한 제도의 개혁, 「범죄피해자보호법」에 근거하여 법무부가 마련한 제1차(2007~2011) 및 제2차(2012~2016) 범죄피해자 보호․지원 기본계획(이하 ‘기본계획’이라 함)의 실시와 그 성과 등으로 신변보호제도의 내용과 틀을 갖추고 지속적인 발전을 거듭하고 있다. 그럼에도 불구하고 최근 보복범죄는 여전히 줄어들지 않고 있으며, 일상생활 속에서 자신의 신변에 대한 불안을 호소하는 국민들은 늘어가고 있다. 이는 현행 신변보호제도가 안고 있는 근원적인 한계와 문제점이 아직 미해결인 상태로 남아 있기 때문이다. 이에 따라 이 글은 현행 신변보호제도를 보다 실질적이고 실효적인 제도로 개선하기 위해서 근원적이고 실질적인 신변안전조치의 마련, 형사사법절차에서의 신원노출 위험의 최소화 및 장기적 관점에서 가칭 ‘증인보호법’의 제정 등을 제시하였다. 또한 제1차 기본계획과 제2차 기본계획 속에 포함된 신변보호제도에 관한 정부의 기본정책의 이행사항 및 성과를 살펴보면서 2017년부터 실시될 3차 기본계획에 관한 정책제언을 하였다. 즉, 3차 기본계획에서도 정책의 기본기조는 실질적․실효적인 신변보호의 지속적 강화가 바람직하다. 이를 위해서 각 부처 간의 협업체계 및 책임성 강화, 정책추진대상 확대 및 세분화, 범죄피해자 정보보호 분야와의 연계강화 등의 정책제언을 하였다.


The Personal Protection System in Korea has become regularized with the start of “The Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment of Specific Violent Crimes” in 1990 and later with the enactment and enforcement of “The Act on the Protecting Reporters of Specific Crimes (hereinafter called the APRSC),” in which measures for personal safety, ancillary measures, etc. were stipulated in 2000 for the benefit of crime victims, witnesses, reporters, etc. Since then, being provided with the contents and framework of a protective system, the Personal Protection System for Crime Victims has developed continuously to be what it is now along with the system reform including several cases of amendments on the APRSC, and with the enforcement and achievement of “the Primary (2007~2011) and the Secondary (2012~2016) Basic Plan for the Protection and Support of Crime Victims (hereinafter called the ‘Basic Plan’)” which had been arranged by the Ministry of Justice based on “The Act for Protection of Crime Victims.” Nevertheless, the number of retaliatory crimes in the recent past has not been reducing yet, while the number of people who are complaining of their insecurity in everyday life is ever-increasing. This is because the fundamental limitations and problems of the current system for protecting personal safety remain unsolved yet. Hence, in this paper, in order to improve the current system for protecting personal safety aiming at a more realistic and effective system, such measures as preparing fundamental and practical security measures, minimizing the risk of personal exposure while judicial procedures of criminal trials are going on, enacting “The Witness Protection Act (tentative name)” from a long-term perspective, etc. have been proposed. Also, evaluating the fulfillments and achievements of the governmental basic policies on the system for protecting personal safety, which have been included in both the primary and secondary basic plans, policy alternatives have been suggested with regard to the tertiary basic plan. In other words, in the tertiary basic plan as well, the keynote of policies is desired to be the continued strengthening of practical and effective security protection. For this, such policy alternatives as strengthening the cooperative system and responsibility among governmental departments, enlargement and segmentation of targets for policy implementation, strengthening the linkage with the area of protecting information on crime victims, etc. have been suggested. Certainly, such institutional improvement and policy alternatives may never be easily achieved in view of such practical constraints as the theoretical problems like conflicts with the defending right which is secured for suspects and defendants, lack of manpower and budget, conflict of interest among competent governmental departments, etc. However, a practical and effective system for protecting personal safety is hoped to be settled down through wisely overcoming those theoretical as well as practical difficulties.