My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 464

Yu Gi-tae’s head tilted, puzzled by the words. Even the profiler, Lee Ji-soo, seemed confused. “Detective, isn’t the right to investigate given to catch criminals?”

“If that were the case, they’d call us secret police, not just police.”

“Then what is it?”

“The right to investigate is exactly what it sounds like: the authority to investigate. It’s not the same as proving a criminal’s guilt. The mistake we often make is forgetting that it’s ultimately the police’s responsibility to prove innocence as well.”

“Ah.”

Understanding dawned on Lee Ji-soo, and her eyes flickered. She realized that she, too, had started to believe she shouldn’t have to prove someone’s innocence.

“More than 90% of the police forget that part.”

The job of the police is to uncover crimes, not to manufacture criminals. The two are completely different.

“But at some point, the police focus more on creating criminals than uncovering crimes.”

Because it’s much easier and faster. The problem is that while it simplifies the work, innocent victims begin to surface.

“There’s a saying in the legal world: It’s better to let ten guilty men go free than to convict one innocent person.”

But in the Korean legal system, it often seems acceptable to create ten innocent victims as long as one criminal doesn’t escape.

“If we investigate fairly and aim to prove the village chief’s innocence, the lawyer will cooperate fully.”

Proving guilt and establishing innocence involve completely different approaches and lines of inquiry. And a lawyer understands that difference.

“And to prove the village chief’s innocence, we need testimony that he was with someone when he heard a baby crying or saw the baby being taken away by boat.”

“That naturally makes them accomplices.”

“Exactly. And those guys will tell the truth to clear their own names.”

Eventually, as such testimonies accumulate, it becomes impossible for the village chief to retract his statements. Because the people he brought in to support his innocence are all implicated.

“It’s a simple problem. Act fairly.”

“Yes, the problem is that it’s very difficult.”

Park Do-joon clicked his tongue. First, act fairly. That way, there won’t be any retractions.

“But still, there’s a problem, isn’t there? Those guys are one thing.”

We need to find the supplier.

“Honestly, there’s a high possibility that we don’t have much time.”

In fact, after the salt farm slave case broke, unidentified bodies began washing up on the shores of Shinan [a coastal region in South Korea known for its islands]. The common factor was that their fingers and toes were cut off, and their faces were mutilated beyond recognition.

And the police in charge didn’t even investigate properly, dismissing them as likely bodies from China.

‘Bullshit.’

Of course, currents from China do flow in this direction. But why would they suddenly be dumping bodies from China precisely when the salt farm slave issue was making headlines?

Furthermore, currents aside, the sea is teeming with carnivorous creatures. Bodies that fall into the water sink and then float back up as gases accumulate, but with so many predators, they’d be devoured before they even resurfaced.

‘It doesn’t make sense that they’re floating in perfectly from China.’

In other words, now that this has become a major issue, if we don’t quickly find those involved, these crazy bastards might kill all the victims, no matter how many there are.

“It’s impossible for us to approach as buyers, right?”

“Of course, they’ll be wary since it’s been all over the news.”

The media is obsessed with the sexual slavery case of disabled women, so no one will be buying women in the meantime.

“But it’s not like there’s no way. To do that, we’d have to reveal the identities of the victims, though.”

Park Do-joon said worriedly.

“They’re investigating nationwide, so it’ll come out soon.”

Park Do-joon nodded at Yu Gi-tae’s words.

“I know. And then we’ll be able to find the supplier.”

Soon after, the identities of the victimized women were released. The families who received the calls arrived, weeping and wailing as they saw their ruined daughters, and the reporters swarmed once more. But Park Do-joon ignored the spectacle, focusing solely on reading their personal information.

“Detective, aren’t you going there?”

“Where?”

“The families came.”

“Ah, there? I’m not going.”

Park Do-joon chuckled as he looked at Lee Ji-soo, who was clearly fighting back tears.

“No, why? Detective, sometimes you seem to have no blood or tears. They finally met their families after so long.”

“That’s exactly why I’m not going.”

“Yes?”

“How can a profiler analyze effectively if they’re emotionally compromised?”

Clearly, meeting the families and exchanging pleasantries would be a heartwarming and touching scene. And many police officers would reaffirm their sense of duty by witnessing such moments.

“But I’m a profiler. What we need to see is not the victim but the criminal.”

If a profiler, whose job is to understand the criminal, emotionally sympathizes with the victim, who is not the criminal, there’s a high risk of bias.

“So, profilers shouldn’t be at the forefront and should maintain as much composure as possible.”

At those words, Lee Ji-soo’s face flushed with shame. She hadn’t considered that and had gone to the reunion between the victims and their families, crying for a long time.

“You should have told me in advance.”

“I just let you experience it firsthand since it’s your first time.”

“Yes?”

“Ultimately, understanding comes from experience. Not sympathizing with the victims emotionally and not understanding them are completely different things.”

In other words, Park Do-joon had anticipated her visit and allowed it, because a good profiler understands the feelings of the victims and knows how to interpret them.

“Really? Isn’t that predictable enough?”

“Then what will you do if the perpetrator pretends to be a victim and cries?”

“Yes?”

“There are so many cases like that. There was even a mother who killed her own child and claimed the child had been kidnapped. Can you suspect someone like that?”

“Ah…….”

Maybe most people wouldn’t understand. No, most people wouldn’t even consider it.

“But if you know the reaction of a real victim, you can be more cautious.”

You can’t create an innocent criminal, but that doesn’t mean the victim is always right.

“The profiler needs to know that.”

And you need to know the victim’s behavior patterns to determine if they are genuinely a victim or if they are faking it.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for? I just let you learn from the experience.”

Park Do-joon said that and handed her the documents.

“I’ve already done a basic analysis while you were gone.”

“It’s a geographical aspect, right?”

“You’re getting pretty good now.”

Park Do-joon leaned back in his chair and stretched, saying,

“Haaam, but this time you’re wrong. Or rather, only half right.”

“Yes?”

“You’re approaching this like you would a case of missing disabled men, right?”

“Th, that’s right?”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Lee Ji-soo answered, her eyes widening. She didn’t realize her mistake. Park Do-joon chuckled at her expression.

‘Well, I had those days too.’

Maybe if I hadn’t regressed [referring to a supernatural ability to return to the past], I’d still be making the same mistake.

“There’s a saying: If you have a son, you only have to worry about your son’s penis, but if you have a daughter, you have to worry about all the penises in the neighborhood.”

“Ah, I think I saw that as a joke online.”

“Is this a joke to families with disabled women as children?”

At those words, Lee Ji-soo paused to consider. She knew he wasn’t trying to scold her, but to teach her with every word. And then she understood what Park Do-joon meant.

“I guess not.”

“Exactly. Disabled women are protected in a much more sheltered way than disabled men.”

“I guess so. Because they lack the ability to defend themselves.”

“Yes.”

In the case of disabled men, there’s less emphasis on extreme isolation. Firstly, they rarely harm others, and even if they are harmed, it’s less likely to be fatal.

“Honestly, enslavement through kidnapping is an extreme case. Furthermore, most people with that level of disability have some social skills.”

So, the parents of disabled men try to develop the skills necessary for their children’s lives to some extent, believing they’ll be able to survive even after their death.

“It’s heartbreaking, but that’s the truth.”

“But that’s not the case for those who have disabled women as children.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Parents with disabled women as children can’t only think about their future survival. Kidnapping is the worst-case scenario and an extreme situation, but sexual assault is a common crime in Korea, and it frequently happens to disabled women who can’t resist.

“In fact, there was a case where all the men in a neighborhood gang-raped a disabled woman.”

There are many men driven by their baser instincts, to the point where a case occurred in a rural area where all the men in the neighborhood raped her while her parents were out working.

“So, disabled women have a much narrower living environment than disabled men, and at the same time, it’s harder to find them from the outside. So how did they find and kidnap these women?”

At those words, Lee Ji-soo frowned. There was definitely a point there. Disabled women’s external activities are extremely limited. So, most of the mentally disabled people you see by chance are men.

“If they broke into the house and kidnapped them, it would have been reported as a kidnapping, not a missing person. I checked it anyway, and they were all reported as missing.”

Park Do-joon said, tapping the victims’ case files on the table.

“The guardian disappeared somewhere while arguing with someone. So, they were all treated as simple missing persons.”

“Could it be?”

“Yes, that’s right. Looking at the records at the time, the incidents all happened in the same way.”

In a situation where the guardian took the disabled woman out, someone picks a fight. The other person protests loudly, and the victim’s attention is diverted to him.

“In fact, in such cases, the families or guardians of people with disabilities apologize first.”

“Even if it’s not their fault?”

“It’s almost a reflex. Some people start a fight simply because the presence of a disabled person makes them uncomfortable.”

There are more people like that than you think. Guide dogs for the blind are allowed anywhere, but there are still plenty of customers or store owners who complain and make a scene.