Characteristics of Korean Suicide: A Case-control Psychological Autopsy Study

Translated from the article published in Korean Journal of Psychology: General, Vol.31, No. 2 (2012), with permission from the Korean Psychological Association.The pattern of psychological and clinical risk factors for suicide among Korean population is an important issue. This study aimed to identify the risk factor characteristics for Korean suicides. This case-control psychological autopsy (PA) study compared 56 suicide deceased with 36 living controls matched by age and gender. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with family members, cohabitants, and the next of kin of the subjects. Data were collected on a wide range of potential risk and protective factors, including demographic, life event, clinical and psychological variables. The relative contribution of these factors to suicide was examined using a binary logistic regression model. As a result, several factors were found to significantly and independently contribute to suicide: adjustment to work and school, trusting people, problem with cohabitants, unhappiness in childhood, history of past suicide attempts, psychiatric illness, psychological stress from life events, and difficulties with life in the aspect of object and duration. Though both case group and control group have life events and difficulties such as financial problem, relationship conflicts, and so on over the ratio of 90%, the level of stress in the case groups was significantly much more severe. Besides, psychological strain was found to play an important role in suicide. Risk factors for suicide in Korea are definitely similar to those in the West, China, and Japan

Cross-cultural generalizability of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) in South Korea

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP; Cooke, Hart, Logan, & Michie, 2013) is a new lexically-based conceptual model of psychopathy that has potential clinical utility. The main purpose of the current research was to investigate the generalizability of the CAPP conceptual model in South Korea. In Study 1, I conducted a study in which experts and lay people in South Korea were asked to rate the prototypicality of symptoms of psychopathy using a Korean language translation of the CAPP model (K-CAPP). The results indicated that, consistent with past research in other countries, Korean experts and lay people on average rated K-CAPP symptoms as being moderately to highly prototypical of psychopathy, and also more prototypical of psychopathy on average than symptoms theoretically unrelated to psychopathy. The prototypicality ratings for K-CAPP symptoms made by Korean experts and lay people were similar to each other, as well as to those made by experts and lay people using the CAPP in other countries. In Study 2, I evaluated the reliability and concurrent validity of expert ratings of psychopathy made using a Korean translation of a CAPP-based clinical measure, CAPP-Institutional Rating Scale (K-CAPP-IRS), in a sample of correctional offenders in South Korea. Reliability analyses based on simple intraclass correlations indicated very high (> .80) interrater reliability for almost all the K-CAPP-IRS symptom, domain, and total ratings. But a more sophisticated examination using a Generalizability Theory framework, with a Persons (89 offenders) x Raters (3 experts) x Occasions (2 occasions, three-month interval) x Items (33 K-CAPP-IRS symptoms) design, revealed complex but substantial interactions involving Raters; however, the impact of these interactions was mitigated when K-CAPP-IRS ratings were made by increasing the number of Raters, as opposed to Occasions. Concurrent validity analyses that K-CAPP-IRS total scores were correlated highly with total scores on the Korean translation of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (Cho & Lee, 2008), r = .647; and moderately with total scores on the Korean translation of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (Park & Lee, 2013), r = .350. Overall, the results of Studies 1 and 2 indicate that the concept of psychopathy, as captured by the CAPP concept map, appears to be cross-culturally valid in South Korea

Sex difference in homicide: comparing male and female violent crimes in Korea

The comparison of the South Korean male and female homicide offenders’ characteristics and crime scene behaviours is presented in this study. A total of 537 cases of homicide offenders prosecuted in Korea between 2006 and 2010 were analyzed in terms of offenders’ characteristics, victim–offender interaction, places of crime, and crime scene actions. Significant differences between male and female offenders were revealed in prior criminal history, offenders’ personal characteristics, choice of victim, crime scene behaviours during and after the homicide, and choice of weapon. The parallel with the gender differences in homicides found in Western countries is discussed as well as the possible explanations for the gender-related characteristics found in this study.N/