Cluster analysis of child homicide in South Korea

Abstract

Background: There has been an insufficient in-depth analysis of the nature and prevalence of the typologies of child homicide in Asia, particularly in South Korea.

Objective: In the current study, we sought to determine the prevalence and identify the heterogeneity of the child homicide phenomenon in South Korea.

Participant and settings: All 341 original case files (i.e., hospital, police, and autopsy reports) of homicide incidents involving children aged 0-18 in 2016 were obtained from the forensic autopsy archives of the National Forensic Service (NFS), which handles 100 % of the medico-legal autopsies in South Korea. These were examined and reclassified based on our definition.

Method: A cluster analysis using Gower's distance was applied, which has rarely been utilized in this field of research. By performing a qualitative analysis, we first extracted 70 (numerical, logical, categorical) crime, victim, perpetrator, and household relevant variables, which were later utilized in the cluster analysis.

Results: Among the 341 cases from 2016, 95 were judged to be at least suspicious child homicide cases. When applying the cluster analysis, eight sub-clusters were extracted: child torture, maternal filicide, neonaticide, death not related to previous abuse, paternal filicide, paternal infanticide, maternal infanticide, and psychotic killings.

Conclusions: The commonality and the unique aspect of the child homicide phenomenon in South Korea, in comparison with the results from previous research from other countries, are discussed.

Keywords: Child abuse; Child homicide; Cluster analysis; Gower distance; Homicide-suicide; South Korea.