지적장애인 성폭력 범죄피해 예방에 관한 연구: 웨어러블 기기 활용 사례를 중심으로

초록

This study examines the potential of wearable technologies as a preventive tool against sexual violence targeting individuals with intellectual disabilities, focusing on their structural vulnerability stemming from cognitive and communicative limitations, dependence on caregivers, and social isolation. Individuals with intellectual disabilities experience difficulties in recognizing risk situations and reporting victimization, which increases their likelihood of repeated victimization. Existing prevention policies have mainly emphasized sex education and self-protection skills, which are limited in enabling immediate responses during real-life emergencies. This study therefore explores whether wearable devices equipped with location tracking, emergency alerts, and connections to monitoring and police systems can compensate for these structural vulnerabilities. A comparative analysis of international cases—including panic buttons for hotel workers in the United States, GPS-based personal safety devices for vulnerable groups in the United Kingdom, women’s safety wearables in India, and personal safety devices and victim-protection smartwatches in South Korea—indicates that wearable technologies function primarily as tools for reducing response time after victimization rather than directly preventing crime occurrence. Policy effectiveness depends less on the technical performance of devices and more on their integration with monitoring infrastructures, police response systems, and caregiver networks. These findings suggest that wearable technologies should be understood as components of coordinated public safety systems rather than as standalone preventive tools. For domestic implementation, key considerations include personal data protection and lawful consent procedures, technical reliability and cybersecurity, clarification of operational responsibility, and phased evaluation of effectiveness. In particular, when applied to individuals with intellectual disabilities, wearable devices should be designed as protective tools that facilitate risk detection and emergency response rather than as instruments of surveillance. Priority should be given to simple interfaces and institutional linkages with welfare and law enforcement systems. By comparing national policy cases, this study highlights the need for a target-centered preventive strategy and institutional design that balances technological innovation with human rights and practical usability.

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