Following the fatal stabbing of a high school girl by a man she had never met in Gwangju, so-called "motiveless crimes" — random attacks with unclear motives — have been occurring at a rate of about 40 cases per year, according to police data. A decade after a woman in her 20s was killed by a stranger near Gangnam Station in Seoul's Seocho district in 2016, similar crimes continue unabated, prompting calls for structural analysis of underlying causes and effective countermeasures rather than reactive responses.
According to the National Police Agency on the 6th, motiveless crimes have occurred at roughly 40 cases annually over the past three years. Since 2023, police have classified cases as motiveless crimes and tracked them separately when there is no connection between suspect and victim, the motive is unclear, and the method is brutal. In the Gwangju case, the high school victims were reportedly attacked after happening to walk past a location where the suspect, identified only as Jang, 24, had been preparing the crime.
Random attacks targeting unspecified victims emerged as a social problem following the 2016 Gangnam Station murder. The perpetrator, Kim Seong-min, stabbed a woman he had never met in a public restroom near the station, later telling investigators he had "felt belittled by women." In 2023, similar attacks occurred in quick succession near Sillim Station in Seoul's Gwanak district and Seohyeon Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, heightening public anxiety and prompting a full-scale government response.
Notably, police launched a Mobile Patrol Unit in 2024 to bolster on-site patrols and respond swiftly to violent crime. The Ministry of Justice said it would consider introducing life sentences without parole for random violent crimes. Nevertheless, after similar incidents occurred in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, and near Mia Station in Seoul's Gangbuk district, the ministry in September last year introduced an additional measure to screen and monitor probationers identified as high-risk for motiveless crimes.
The challenge, however, lies in the difficulty of detecting warning signs in advance, given the nature of such crimes. Regarding the Gwangju case, police said, "We are working to uncover the facts through profiler interviews and forensic analysis," while noting that "in many cases, it is difficult to specify a motive beyond the suspect's own statement." Jang's statement that "I found life meaningless and was contemplating suicide before deciding to commit the crime" illustrates how internal, personal factors driving such attacks are difficult to capture through institutional means.
Experts say the concept of motiveless crime itself must first be more precisely defined. The current approach — broadly grouping together cases based on unclear motives and brutality — makes it difficult to analyze the distinct characteristics of each crime type or design tailored response strategies. Japan defines such incidents narrowly as "tsūma-ma" or street-demon murders, referring specifically to cases where perpetrators use weapons against unspecified victims in crowded spaces without clear motive. The United States and Britain similarly subdivide such incidents into categories such as hate or rage crimes. Lee Yoon-ho, a professor of police administration at Dongguk University, said, "Criteria must be redefined around common mechanisms such as venting dissatisfaction with society or displacing anger onto substitute targets. Only then can case accumulation and comparative analysis yield effective prevention strategies."
The need for preemptive management of certain high-risk groups has also been repeatedly raised. Bae Sang-hoon, a professor of police administration at Woosuk University, said, "Medical data on juvenile offenders with mental illness should be systematically accumulated and warning signs tracked over the long term," adding that "mandatory mental health evaluations prior to release and other recidivism-prevention safeguards must be strengthened." At the same time, critics warn that simply linking mental illness to crime risks stigmatization, and that precise criteria and human rights safeguards must accompany any such measures.
Meanwhile, the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station on the same day requested an arrest warrant for Jang on charges including murder. The pre-detention hearing is expected to be held on the 7th. Police plan to proceed with disclosure of Jang's identity once custody is secured. The identity disclosure committee is scheduled to convene on the 7th or 8th to decide whether to release his face, name, and age.
