• Journal of forensic and investigative science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.32-51
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• 2007

Serial violent crimes have occurred more frequently. Additional attention is paid to relevant areas in which discussions has also increased. This study analyzed Young-cheol Yoo, serial killer case. Two of Yoo's crimes were studied for modus operandi. The cases selected were the premeditated break-in homicide of upper-class elderly people and the impulsive homicide of the Hwanghak-Dong street vendor. Crime motives, targets, times, places, means and methods were analyzed. Profiling techniques in Young-cheol Yoo cases were evaluated and the problems discovered during investigation were discussed. The followings are the findings of the analysis of the serial killer Yoo cases. Yoo exhibited a hatred toward the rich, the elderly, and women as well as a fear of diseases and death. Yoo's crime targets were the elderly residing in wealthy houses, street vendors and prostitutes. The numbers of victims were: 3 men and 5 women victims in 4 homicide cases involving the elderly residents in wealthy houses; one man in 1 street vendor homicide case 11 women in 11 prostitute homicide cases, so total 20 persons were murdered in 16 cases. The time of the crimes were between 10 am and noon in the homicide cases of the elderly and very late at night or early in the morning in the prostitute homicide cases. Means and methods facilitated include the use of a knife as a threat and a hammer made by Yoo to strike the head and face of victims. In the homicide cases involving the elderly, he attempted to disguise the crime scene as a burglary or committed arson to destroy the evidence; in the prostitute homicide cases, bodies were mutilated and buried in secret. 1) Generally each serial killer case has different characteristics, motives, and purposes; while some serial killer cases involve similar methods, others use different methods. Unlike other crimes, serial killers' characteristics and tastes are very different, so it is difficult to explain serial killings based on a specific model. It is important to accurately capture modus operandi of each serial killing and for detectives to familiarize themselves with them. The process of tracing and use of imagination which follows a serial killer's psychology and thought must be used to find out what kind of thoughts pushed the killer to commit the crime. In order to investigate and research difficult subjects such as serial killing, various methods, skills, and relevant knowledge should be studied, and institutional endeavors should go hand in hand with individual efforts.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.15
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• pp.29-50
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• 2008

Many countries throughout the world have enacted laws on terrorism in the light of the changes that time has brought to them, geographical features, cultural values, and environmental elements. Especially some advanced European nations prescribe the definition of terrorism, the purpose of terrorism, the behavior of terrorism, and the types of crimes related to terrorism and so on for the following reason that it is more vital for the authorities concerned to investigate and punish terrorists after the rise of terrorism. In this regard, this paper analyzes legislative countermoves against terrorists of advanced countries such as France, Germany, and England and through this sheds light on the need of future anti-terrorism bills. The legislative basic guidelines directly to manipulate future terrors based on theories derived from this study could be summarized as follows. In the first place, providing laws on direct investigative power and harsher punishment to those involved in terrorism is a prerequisite for social security and thus the presidential directive of the state anti-terrorism action guidelines just deals with administrative measures without any effective response to terrorism. Hence it is urgent to make anti-terrorism bill concerning investigation and punishment of terrorists. In the second place, it is associated with the objectives of terror. The expression "all sorts of" stated in Korean law is so quite unclear that it can not fulfill the required conditions for naming it "crime". Comprehending provisoes of the crime that meets the purpose of the terrorists is necessary in order to investigate and inflict punishment on them. Therefore, it is advisable to establish specific and precise principles such as political, social, ideological, and religious purpose of terrorists in the bill. In the third place, to meet the flow of times of technicalization, informatization, such provisoes as destruction of electronic data system, crimes related to nuclear materials, purchases of weapons by terrorists, tax administration for prohibition of sale, and arson should be considered in terror bill. In the fourth place, nonselective attack toward unspecified individuals has become a serious issue in our society. Terrorists leave poisonous foods or beverages to crowded place or dump toxic chemicals into river intentionally. Therefore more strict regulations must be included in terror bill to prevent possible terrorist attacks.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.29
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• pp.139-162
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to compare with the general and behavioral characteristics between simple and serial arsonists using the data derived from Scientific Crime Analysis System, Criminal Filing Search System, and Crime Information Management System. The analysis and findings reported here are derived from data extracted from 160 arsonists arrested by police officer. The independent variables included such socio-economic characteristic as arsonists' gender, age, occupation, education level, and previous criminal records of arsonists, and finally the general characteristics of the scene of fire settings. The dependent variable is whether or not serial fire setter. To achieve the purpose, the analysis of frequencies and cross-tab were conducted. According to frequence and cross-tab analysis, there are great differences of the general and behavior characteristics between two groups. In the comparison of simple and serial arsonists, serial arsonists are more likely to have previous criminal records, low socio-economic status, unmarried and no cohabitants than simple arsonists. furthermore, serial arsonists are more likely to use garbage papers for fire setting in the scene of the crime, to have mental or psychological problems, and to get involved in fire setting for the psychological pleasure than simple arsonists do. The present research has some obvious limitations. First, the analysis is based only on arsonists arrested by police officers. These may be considerable differences in arsonists arrested by police officers and fire setters not arrested by them. Additional research is needed to assess the extent to which these findings would apply to fire setters not arrested by police officer in Korea. Secondly, the data in this study are cross-sectional and simple cross-tab analysis are used. Potential limitation of cross-sectional data concerns the inability to specify the changes in measures as arsonists behavioral characteristics. Therefore, further studies need to use longitudinal data and more complicate statistical techniques such as correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, or LISREL models to specify the casual relationships between dependent and independent variables for fire settings. Even if this study has some limitations, it is meaningful in which it first investigated the comparison of simple and serial arsonists focusing on the general and behavioral characteristics between two groups in Korea.