My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 443

“However, some extreme sadists cross that line.”

“Cross the line?”

“Yes, you might not know it, Chief.”

Sadists exert a very strong psychological influence by dominating others. It’s not just about inflicting pain or tormenting someone; it’s about enjoying the control and subjugation of another person.

“But everything has a marginal utility.”

“There’s marginal utility here too?”

“Yes.”

Marginal utility is a kind of diminishing reward that comes from repeated exposure to the same stimulus.

For example, drug offenders often start with marijuana and eventually move on to synthetic drugs like ecstasy. This is because the marginal utility of marijuana is exhausted quickly, and it no longer provides the same stimulation.

So, they move from marijuana to liquid marijuana, then to Philopon [a methamphetamine], and eventually to ecstasy.

“This psychological resistance works the same way.”

The easier it is to control someone, the less satisfying it becomes.

“I don’t understand.”

“Think about the military.”

“The military?”

“In the military, there are senior officers who harass their subordinates, right?”

“That’s true.”

“Their harassment becomes increasingly intense.”

The Chief nodded. These days, with the peer support system, such cases are much rarer than in the past, but the Chief had served in the military a long time ago.

“At first, it’s just simple errands.”

Then, they start sending them on errands without giving them enough money. For example, giving them 500 won [approximately 40 US cents] and saying, ‘Go buy bread, milk, frozen dumplings, and a 1.5-liter cola, and bring back 300 won [approximately 25 US cents] in change.’

It’s essentially robbing the other person, but no one punishes them because they’re a senior officer.

“And when that gets worse, they do even crazier things.”

“Yeah, there were guys like that.”

Later, they would assault people for no reason, just because they didn’t like them, and openly steal their belongings.

There were even guys who would go on leave and stick their prostitution expenses on their juniors, and later, after being discharged, they would go to their homes, assault them, and threaten them to give them money.

“As they become accustomed to that domination, they start to think it’s natural and want to exert even stronger control.”

“Stronger control?”

“Yes, you could call it the hunting theory.”

The pleasure of domination is stronger when you break a resisting target than when you dominate a non-resisting one. And the stronger the resistance, the more powerful you feel your control is.

“So, all that harassment is a means to elicit resistance?”

“Yes, that’s right. And they want to break it.”

They keep sending the victim the message, ‘Even if you tell the officers, I can screw you over. The officers are on my side and won’t save you because of their performance reviews. I am the ruler who dominates you. So, struggle all you want. The more you do, the more I enjoy it.’

“In reality, unless there is a strong punishment, they can’t stop that behavior.”

What’s the best way to foster crime? It’s ambiguous punishment. If the crime is clear, and if it’s intentional, then a strong punishment must be imposed to serve as a proper warning and a deterrent.

In fact, when you look at crimes that occur within the military, the reason things escalate is mostly because the superiors who recognize it don’t stop it, but rather cover it up.

“And the more power they have, the better they are at covering it up.”

“Ugh!”

It’s Hong Woo-jong, of all people. The second son of the Daeguk Group and a politician in South Korea.

Touching such a person without proper evidence is virtually impossible.

“But there’s no evidence. Isn’t he just saying anything?”

“I wish that were the case…”

If he were just saying anything to change the direction of the torture, he wouldn’t be a gangster, but a special forces operative or a black ops agent from the National Intelligence Service [South Korea’s primary intelligence agency]. Moreover, even though Park Do-joon and the Karen torturers weren’t mentioned, the name ‘Hong Woo-jong’ was brought up.

“There may be no hard evidence, but there is testimony.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Triads [Chinese transnational organized crime syndicates] are large enough to hire intelligent criminals with money. They wouldn’t fail to have experts review their operations.”

“You mean…?”

“Yes, that’s right. At first, they kidnapped women from China and supplied them to Korea. They realized that if missing persons kept appearing in Korea, the police would become suspicious.”

The Chief’s face hardened. Park Do-joon had cracked down on a related case before. It was a case where women were brought from China, forced into prostitution, and then sold off somewhere for a high price when it was time for them to return home.

In the end, they managed to stop it, but they couldn’t find out who bought them.

“However, after that incident, there were problems with the supply of women being sent from China to Korea.”

Because it was an incident that turned Korea and China upside down, the Chinese government began to crack down on the Triads. The Triads aren’t really a single organization, but rather a collection of Chinese organizations, and when the organization that supplied women within it began to be cracked down on, there were problems with the supply of women.

“You mean that guy?”

“Yes, that’s right. He used to do that kind of work.”

However, when he couldn’t do that because of the Chinese government’s crackdown, he was reassigned to organ trafficking in Myanmar.

“Basically, there’s a connection with human trafficking.”

Even if they’re clueless, they can’t suddenly send the guys who were managing pickpockets yesterday to organ trafficking or human trafficking.

“On top of that, he seems to have been involved in fraudulent organ trafficking when he was in China.”

“Crazy.”

“The problem is that things went wrong after that.”

Juo Lin thought he had been demoted. In fact, that was somewhat true. To be precise, he was sent to Myanmar because he was no longer useful and didn’t need much attention.

“But he said that after that, the plan changed to supplying women directly from Korea.”

“That… the kidnapping case you mentioned last time?”

“That’s right.”

There were suspicious reports of kidnapping cases being carried out by the Triads, but no investigation was being conducted.

“You mean that kidnapping case is happening because of Hong Woo-jong?”

“To be precise, it’s a combination of factors.”

“A combination?”

“Yes.”

The victims supplied to the sadists are subjected to all sorts of torture. When they die, the organ trafficking organization’s doctor dismembers the body and sells off all the usable parts, and the remaining parts are incinerated.

“What?”

The Chief trembled at the fact that it wasn’t just a simple missing person case, but that kidnapping, torture, and organ trafficking were all involved.

“They go that far?”

“No, usually criminals don’t go that far.”

Most criminals act with a single purpose, and when that purpose is achieved, related issues become secondary.

For example, if the purpose is murder, the guys who committed the murder have completed their purpose when the person dies, so at most, they’ll dispose of the body to avoid being caught.

“Thinking about secondary profits from that is something that arises from a very business-minded perspective.”

And the typical criminal’s disposition doesn’t allow them to think that way. This is because the feeling of wanting to avoid the police and government’s pursuit is prioritized.

“That Wang Uhwan guy probably created that system.”

He knows too much about the profit model of crime and the psychology of criminals. No one else would even think of doing something like this.

“Why do you say that?”

“Sadists, especially those who kill people, try to kill them as slowly as possible. It was the same in the video case last time.”

As they get used to it, the victim’s survival time gradually increases, and as the survival time increases, the pleasure increases as a result.

“What does that have to do with control?”

“The most powerful form of control is death.”

Control is a process. At first, they feel pleasure in controlling the other person’s actions. Sending them on errands or knowing the victim can’t report them even when they’re being beaten.

“When they go beyond that stage, they feel pleasure in controlling the other person’s psychology.”

They feel pleasure in the other person being afraid of them, wanting to avoid them, and being in despair.

“The extortion I mentioned in the military is also in that realm.”

It’s not direct violence. That 500-won errand isn’t direct violence either. They don’t even curse. But the victim trembles in fear because they know what kind of retaliation they’ll face if they don’t carry out that ridiculous task.

“They want to have their existence acknowledged by controlling the other person’s emotions. And there are tons of guys like that on the internet.”

Do the guys who spout nonsense on the internet really do it without thinking? No. They think they’re controlling the other person by doing that.

They start to fall into a kind of ridiculous delusion, thinking, ‘I wrote something and made the other person angry. I can control the other person’s emotions as I please.’

“And the last form of control they fall into is death.”

I can even control death.

I can control someone’s life as I please.

“And the person who falls into that delusion is the most dangerous.”

“You don’t mean…”

“It’s not ‘you don’t mean.’ This delusion is especially prevalent in the legal profession.”

“The legal profession?”

“Yes, why do criminals write letters of remorse to judges and prosecutors instead of the victims?”

The victim is someone they can ignore because they have no influence on their future, but judges and prosecutors are people who can influence their future, so the letter of remorse isn’t ‘I’m sorry to the victim,’ but ‘I’m sorry to the judge and prosecutor.’

“And the judges and prosecutors start to delude themselves into thinking that they have that kind of control.”

They are superior to others. They are so-called ‘celestials’ and no one can touch them.

“In reality, there are more cases of sadistic crimes among judges and prosecutors than you think. It’s just that they don’t come to light.”

When people think of sadistic crimes, they only think of beating or torturing people, but strictly speaking, sadism includes psychological torture. In other words, gaslighting or power harassment can also be seen as sadistic crimes.