"Murder Threat Post, Intended to Attract Attention... But Possibility of Sympathy Cannot Be Ruled Out"

Professor Lee Woong-hyuk of Konkuk University SBS Radio Interview
"Repeated Stabbings... Due to Activation Effect"

Professor Lee Woong-hyuk of Konkuk University's Department of Police Science analyzed that the surge in online posts predicting murder following the stabbing incidents near Sillim Station in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, and Seohyeon Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, is a mix of people posting as a joke and those with actual criminal intent.

On the 7th, appearing on SBS Radio's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show,' Professor Lee pointed out the psychology behind posting murder threats, saying, "There are people with an underlying desire to gain attention, and there is also a distorted sense of satisfaction from the false reports themselves, which have a significant national impact."

He continued, "While there are such types, there were also specific attack targets, which suggests that people harboring thoughts similar to Cho Seon, the suspect in the Sillim Station incident, are unknowingly present in our society. Rather than approaching this as a minor issue because it is a joke or involves youth, a more threatening approach is needed that does not exclude the possibility of sympathy or agreement."

On the morning of the 4th, police were deployed around Seohyeon Station in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. Photo by Yonhap News

Regarding the series of stabbing crimes, Professor Lee analyzed that there is an 'activation effect.' He said, "According to foreign research, for example, there was a school shooting incident in Colombia in 1999 in the United States. As a result, multiple homicides frequently occurred in the U.S., and one characteristic was that the intervals between these incidents gradually shortened."

He added, "Looking at our current cases, although they are not exactly multiple homicides, the reason why people prepare weapons and such is amplified is due to this activation effect. The Sillim Station incident also referenced a similar indiscriminate incident that occurred in Hong Kong, so it can be evaluated that there was an activation effect here as well."

Regarding claims that 'random crimes' occur due to mental health issues, he said, "This deviates somewhat from the so-called fundamental problem of random crimes. In the case of the Sillim Station incident, the cause was unpleasant feelings stemming from the inability to achieve social goals with the means the individual had, so it is essentially unrelated to mental health issues."

Professor Lee stated, "The fundamental problem in this matter is that the angry aspects of our society, which had been latent until now, have not been resolved. To put it differently, even while driving, people engage in retaliatory driving, and there have been accumulations of incidents involving weapons used in disputes over noise and floor noise."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.