What went on in the mind of the rapist of 7-year-old girl?

A man suspected of raping a 7-year-old child in Naju County, South Jeolla Province, is known to kidnap her while she was sleeping at home, sexually assaulted her until her intestines ruptured, and left her on a roadside before disappearing.

Many wonder what Goh Jong-seok, 23, was thinking when he committed the heinous crime. The Dong-A Ilbo studied expert analyses on his psychology at dawn Thursday, when he committed the crime.

○ Perceiving children as sexual objects

According to experts on sexual crime, child sex offenders such as Goh have a cognitive system that differs from that of ordinary people. Child sex offenders perceive that they can also resolve their sexual desire with children rather than with adults.

This distorted perception results from “desire to get compensation” for failed relationships with an adult women through other channels, or from “learning from observation” in which they feel sexually attracted to young children after repeatedly watching child pornography. Lee Yoon-ho, a criminal psychology professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, said, “Chances are high that Goh committed the crime after watching pornography featuring minors, and he probably failed to keep a desired relationship with an adult woman.”

Experts say Goh took action after setting a target, kidnapping the girl while she was sleeping with her family in the living room. After considering his physical strength and predicting his target’s resistance, he picked a young victim whom he could easily carry.“The criminal could be a pedophile who feels sexual desire only toward children,” Lee said.

○ Deserting victims like garbage

Goh displayed the typical behavior of a psychopath in that he failed to recognize his victim`s pain while committing the crime. He disregarded the girl when she begged him to let her go while moving her 300 meters from her home to where he raped her.

While he committed the crime, the girl suffered a 5-centimeter cut in her vaginal area and a ruptured rectum, but he remained focused on satisfying his sexual desire. Oh Jeong-eun, a sergeant at Seoul’s Gangseo Police Department and a six-year veteran of criminal profiling, said, “The character of a psychopath is that he or she fails to read the facial expressions and emotion of the target and experiences no emotional change while committing a crime.”

After committing the crime, Goh did not hide her and instead left her at a roadside just 130 meters from her home, another typical characteristic of a psychopath. He apparently did not consider her human let alone seeing her as a “personality.”Lee Soo-jeong, a criminal psychology professor at Kyonggi University in Seoul, said, “Goh only must have felt relieved after leaving the crime scene just like most other psychopaths. He must have considered the victim as a useless thing and not cared about her.”

Experts say that when questioned, Goh will try to avoid responsibility by saying things like, "I was isolated from society,” and “Her parents are at fault because they failed to give her proper care.” Professor Lee Soo-jeong said, “Another characteristic of a psychopath is to blame others for his crime and feel no sense of guilt.”

becom@donga.com