What Do You Know About Psychopaths
	[영어뉴스] 최종수정일 / 2009년 09월 17일

Last year the film, The Chaser, was a big hit.  It dealt with psychopath's cruelty.  Koreans were shocked and terrified. Thanks to curiosity about psychopaths, The Chaser recorded five million ticket buyers and swept all the awards in various film festivals. But with our quick tempers, which is often compared to a pot boiling over and cooling quickly, the fascination with psychopaths would have subsided were it not for Ho-soon Kang.  Because of his shocking murders, women have started to subscribe to a tracking device service, to learn the art of self-defense, and to purchase gas guns.

Young-chul Yoo, who provided the motive for the movie's ‘chaser’ brutally murdered 21 people and cut their bodies over a 10 month period, shocking the Korean public.  He thought at first that his poor position was due to the fault of the rich, so he snuck into wealthy homes.  Then he killed 11 women who worked in massage parlors, calling them to his house.  After having sex, he killed them and buried them.  He said, "If I had not been arrested, I would have killed one hundred people," showing no guilt.

Kang killed women after sexual violence and buried them secretly.  Moreover, he set fire to his former wife's house in order to collect the insurance.  As a result, his former wife and the wife's mother died.  Also, he cut women's fingers stained with his blood, not at all hesitant about any sort of cruelty.

The press and specialists describe them as psychopaths.  The reason is that serial murders were committed by men in their mid thirties, and they planned the murders without any guilt feeling.  Especially they express anger and satisfy desire for power by choosing women for sexual abuse and murder.  Such traits typify psychopaths.  

So what is a psychopath   To put it simply, it is a person with a personality disorder whose outward appearance looks normal but who can commit a terrible crime.  This is known as psychopathy.  Specialists say that neighbors and co-workers never detect psychopaths because antisocial personality lies dormant in ordinary time.  But psychopath's antisocial personality is found through crime. Psychopaths are cold-hearted, unfeeling, impulsive and irresponsible.  Deception, theft, cruelty to animals, lies and sexual disorganization are symptoms of a psychopath.  Also lack of sympathy and contrition about a fault, difficulty of impulse control are psychopath's typical characteristics.

According to Professor Chang-won Pyo of the Police Academy, who is the author of 'Serial Murders in Korea,' "in murders in general it is easy to grasp the murder motive and the murderer does not repeat his crime.  But serial murders frighten people in that they occur repeatedly on random people without a clear motive. "It comes as a shock that serial murders are more sophisticated, indiscriminate and cruel over the course of the crimes.

Then, what makes human beings so cruel and wicked in our society   How do we understand them   What should our society do to prepare for those crimes   Our society must jointly and actively pursue various means to confront serial murders.

Professor Pyo points out "serial murders are wicked and wretched symptom of the society, and it should take all means to discover the cause and find a solution."

Professor Su-jung Lee (Major in criminal psychology), who is a developer of a Korean psychopath test, cautioned, "the publicity over these crimes should not end.  It is important to strive for prevention of crimes like this. We must make sure that potential criminals don't commit a crime like Ho-soon Kang.

Tip: Psychopath test
①An enemy whom you should kill sustains his life hanging from a bar on a giddy cliff.  If so how will you kill him 
-Normal Person's Answer: step on his hands, cut the bar and so on
-Psychopath's Answer: cut a finger one by one

②Santa Claus gave a little boy a soccer ball and bicycle.  But he was not happy.  Why isn't he happy 
-Normal Person's Answer: He wants another gift. or he already has.
-Psychopath's Answer: He does not have legs.

③You are a thief and you go around taking things.  But the owner wakes up and sees your face, and then hides in a closet in your sight.  If you have knife, how will you
kill him 
-Normal Person's Answer: open the closet or set fire to the closet.
-Psychopath's Answer: wait until he come out of closet.

March 19 2009,
By reporter Choi Jung in