My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 158

“Yeah, it’s tough to get in any other way in that situation, especially since the U.S. follows the principle of jus soli [right of the soil, granting citizenship to anyone born within a country’s territory].”

“That’s right.”

The U.S. adheres to jus soli, meaning anyone born in the U.S. is an American citizen. And the whole world knows how much power a U.S. passport holds.

“There’s a saying among cops that a U.S. passport is like a ‘bald eagle with its wings spread.’”

“A bald eagle with its wings spread?”

“Yeah, an eagle spreads its wings when it’s hunting something. Pulling out a passport in front of the police often means something’s gone wrong.”

“Oh, does that happen often?”

“Often enough. There are some interesting cases you should know about. Like mutual assault, for example…”

The mutual assault case was simple. People drinking at a club got into a fight, and one of them was American. Naturally, the police were called, and as always, they decided to charge both parties.

From the police’s perspective, it was an opportunity to close two cases with one incident, so almost 99% of the time, they’d charge both sides in a fight.

The problem was they didn’t know the power of a U.S. citizen.

“Huh? So what happened?”

“Well, all hell broke loose.”

The Korean who started the fight was drunk, and when he was losing, he ganged up with his friends and beat the American.

The American, who had come to the club for a drink while on vacation, was understandably dumbfounded.

From his point of view, he was just defending himself.

In fact, the U.S. recognizes self-defense quite broadly. In a situation where a group is assaulting one person, throwing a punch was clearly within the realm of self-defense.

“So that person contacted the U.S. Embassy. Naturally, the U.S. Embassy went ballistic.”

The U.S. Ambassador showed up at the police station and protested vehemently, accusing them of framing the victim. The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs got involved to try to smooth things over, but somehow a reporter from the BBC’s Korean bureau heard about it and came to cover the story.

Naturally, the victim claimed that the police were trying to frame him and protect a group of criminals. The police station, which had been trying to get easy wins by automatically charging both sides in assault cases, was in chaos.

“The officer in charge got a six-month pay cut, and the police chief was demoted to a rural substation.”

“A substation? Not even a police station?”

“It was a way of telling him to take off his epaulettes [shoulder boards indicating rank, essentially a forced retirement].”

That’s the power of an American with a U.S. passport.

She has the opportunity to obtain that U.S. citizenship, so would she come to Korea? There’s no reason to.

“What about hiring another killer?”

“Hiring a killer is possible, but then there’s no reason to fake a suicide.”

Faking someone’s suicide is never easy. Moreover, even though Jang Jin-woo is a has-been star, he was still a star who shook Korea.

To fake his suicide? Would that be easy? Kidnapping him alone would be difficult.

“Secondly, Jang Jin-woo and his sister were close. She was his only heir, after all.”

Jang Jin-woo wasn’t married and didn’t have a girlfriend. His parents had passed away, so he had raised his sister since she was young.

“His sister is his only family, and Jang Jin-woo gave her the money she needed to immigrate to the U.S. Officially, it’s a loan, but he had no intention of getting it back anytime soon.”

“That’s definitely true.”

Naturally, Jang Jin-woo’s sister has no reason to kill him. If she needs money, she can just ask.

“Moreover, his sister’s family is doing quite well in the U.S.”

Her husband was a researcher with a doctorate, and because Korea’s technology level is so high, he was able to find a research position in the U.S. without much difficulty.

And the salary of a researcher in the U.S. is incomparably higher than in Korea.

“There’s no reason to commit murder.”

“But still, the money…”

“You should never make such ambiguous judgments. Of course, many people like money. It’s a time when murder is rampant because of money. But if you attribute every murder to money, only a small fraction of cases will be solved.”

People think money is the root of all evil. But looking at the records and proportions of cases, surprisingly, cases that occur because of money are only a small part of the total.

“Rather, murders due to grudges or anger are more significant than those caused by money.”

However, those are personal cases, and the media doesn’t pay much attention to them.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, as you’ll learn, profiling is close to statistics. Naturally, you have to look at the statistics accurately. What’s highlighted in the media is only the sensational and shocking parts. But that’s not everything. Rather, ordinary cases don’t attract media attention. Ordinary means they happen frequently.”

“Ah…”

Several murders due to grudges occur every day. But the number of planned crimes committed for money is much smaller.

“I’ve never thought about that.”

“Looking at the numbers in statistics and seeing the essence yourself are completely different.”

Lee Ji-soo looked at Park Do-joon with a face that seemed moved by his words. Park Do-joon cleared his throat at her gaze and said,

“So, what do you think?”

“There’s only one thing left, resentment.”

“Right?”

“Yes.”

“The police at the time also judged it that way.”

Murder due to resentment. But no matter how much they investigated, they couldn’t identify a target with a grudge.

Did he live too kindly? No. Rather, there were too many people who held grudges.

“What? Was he that bad of a person?”

“No, that’s not it. When someone is famous and powerful, it’s almost instinctive for people to hold grudges.”

“Huh?”

“One of the things people misunderstand is, ‘Someone holds a grudge because that person did something bad.’”

“Really?”

Lee Ji-soo was surprised by those words. They had never taught her that in school.

‘Korean profiling basically prioritizes profiling the perpetrator.’

Since there’s no profiling of ordinary people, these key elements are often missed.

It’s such a basic element, but because it’s basic, they forget to teach it.

The problem is that if it’s basic but not taught because it’s basic, then it’s no longer basic.

For example, these days, students don’t know how to read analog clocks. It’s basic for adults, so they don’t teach it, but in this digital age, it’s harder to see analog clocks, so it’s no longer basic.

“So they gloss over the mechanisms of murder due to resentment too easily.”

“Then why does resentment arise?”

“It’s simple. It arises because I don’t like them.”

“It’s that simple?”

“It’s basic. It can be complicated if you want it to be, but it can be simple if you want it to be. There’s a saying, ‘Kimchi stew is the hardest.’”

Kimchi stew is a dish that most Koreans have made at least once, and it’s not a difficult dish. It’s literally a basic dish that Koreans cook at least once.

“But because it’s basic, it’s really hard to earn the title of a delicious restaurant [meaning it’s hard to stand out].”

Resentment is the same. It’s complicated if you only think of it as complicated, but it’s endlessly simple if you think of it as simple.

“Usually, when it comes to resentment that leads to murder, people think it’s like the enemy of one’s parents [a deep-seated, justified hatred], but humans commit murder out of simple jealousy. In this case, jealousy became resentment.”

In fact, a woman who lived alone killed a mother and her two children because she was simply jealous.

The official investigation result was that she was divorced and living alone, and she hated that the other woman looked happy.

“So, in the investigation stage, there are too many targets of resentment.”

From the former members of Juggernaut to the former agency’s CEO, former managers, people in fan clubs or business relationships, to people classified as extreme fans.

“So, they couldn’t solve the case in the end.”

Murder is suspected, but you can’t create a criminal based on suspicion alone.

‘More accurately, it’s burdensome.’

If necessary, they probably would have created a criminal. Especially in political cases.

But creating a criminal for a fading singer is bound to be a burden for the police.

“You’re saying there are too many suspicious people to identify the culprit?”

Lee Ji-soo looked shocked by those words.

Park Do-joon knew the reason.

“You didn’t know?”

“No, um… the professors never talked about that.”

“That’s probably true. It was the same when I was there.”

Park Do-joon sighed deeply.

“Basically, what you learn in school are successful cases.”

Successful cases.

So, classes revolve around cases where they succeeded in identifying and catching the perpetrator. Naturally, profilers make judgments based on that.

“The problem is the failed cases. If you only study successful cases, you can solve similar types, but conversely, you can’t solve failed cases. You keep failing.”

Because, from the profilers’ point of view, they’ve never learned how to solve them. Of course, if a skilled profiler or someone with a sense of duty keeps researching, a solution will come out.

But realistically, there are very few such people, and most tend to stick to existing methods.

“Moreover, information transfer between the field and the school is particularly slow in Korea.”

“Does that matter?”

“Detective Lee, you know that crime evolves, right?”

“Yes. That’s common sense.”

“Then how long does it take for that to be conveyed to the school?”

“That’s… uh?”

You wouldn’t know. No one has thought about it.

“It usually takes five years.”

When a new type of crime appears, unless the case becomes a hot topic or the police specifically request an analysis, it takes an average of five years for a new type of criminal or crime format to reach the school.

“The problem is that profilers within the police are not researchers.”

The profiler team in the Metropolitan Investigation Unit was created for a specific purpose, so there’s relatively less paperwork, but profilers assigned to police stations have to do all the paperwork like other police officers while also doing profiling.

In other words, even if a new case occurs, they have absolutely no time to research and analyze it.

“But the professors… Ah, that’s right.”

It takes five years for a case to be passed on to the professors. And it takes the professor at least two years to analyze it.

In other words, it takes a minimum of seven years, and an average of ten years, for a case to be analyzed and the perpetrator’s methods and psychology to be fixed.

“For example, random killings are the same.”

When random killings first occurred, psychologists and profilers were confused. Because it wasn’t an existing crime.

It wasn’t targeting anyone, and it wasn’t purposeful. They just ran around trying to kill people nearby, regardless of who the target was.

“Do you know what was most confusing when that case broke out?”

“What is it? Indiscriminateness?”

“No. The most confusing thing was the choice of target.”

“Choice of target?”

“If the perpetrator has no purpose, they prefer victims who are easier to subdue. But that’s not the case with random killings.”

They showed the intention to kill even men who were difficult to subdue, even men much larger than themselves, with their eyes rolled back.

It was shocking to the police, who had thought that murder had a set purpose or that there was a target they could control.

A Professional Profiler