procedure. Second, when people involved in sex traffic violating Article 21 (1) are indicted, most of them are subject to monetary penalty through a summary indictment. Although the legal punishment is the same both for buyers and sellers, most prostituted women are second time offenders and many are even three time offenders since they continue to engage in sex traffic to make a living, leading to a much higher amount of monetary penalty than sex buyers. Even worse, there are cases where they go back to sex traffic due to the burden of monetary penalty. 45. According to the Research on Legal and Policy Directions for Curbing Procurement and Demand in Prostitution (2017) by Women’s Human Rights Institute of Korea, the legal definition of sex traffic subject to the current Act on the Punishment of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic is also based on the act of prostituted women 14 , which makes it necessary to conduct investigation in disguise and crackdown on brothels or suspected places of sex traffic in order to prove the act of the law violation. To this end, the police carry out a sting operation against prostituted women in disguise as a customer. However, in 2014, there was a case where a prostituted woman committed suicide by jumping off the window at a motel to avoid the operation. As such, in the process of crackdown on prostitution, issues of violations of human rights and safety of prostituted women resulting from the abuse of police activities are raised.15 46. Although the Government claims that the Act on the Punishment of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic has exemption provisions for sex traffic victims and youth involved in prostitution from criminal punishment and provides protection for victims of sexual traffic under the Act on the Prevention of Commercial Sex 14 “The term "sexual traffic" means committing any of the following acts for an unspecified person or becoming a partner thereof in return for receiving or promising to receive money, valuables or other property gains; (a) Sexual intercourse; (b) Pseudo-sexual intercourse using parts of the body, such as the mouth and anus, or implements” (Article 2 (1) of the Act on Punishment of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic) 15 Yoon Deok-kyung, Lee In-sun, Jang Da-hye (2017), Research on Legal and Policy Directions for Curbing Procurement and Demand in Prostitution, Women’s Human Rights Institute of Korea, p102.