언론을 활용한 긴급 공개수배의 범인 검거의 효과 분석

Abstract

The investigative agency conducts an “Urgent Wanted Notice”, which distributes a public wanted poster to the media as a last resort in the face of lack of relevant information. This is to quickly disclose the occurrence of the incident to prevent crime and to arrest the fugitives through the report of the citizen. The effect of the criminal apprehension of urgent wanted notice has been recognized in the past, and the possibility of using it has increased due to the recent increase in the number of media outlets and the expansion of means such as SNS, but it is difficult to actively utilize it due to the violation of the principle of presumption of innocence, lack of legal grounds, and criticism of the negative aspects of the wanted suspect’s suicide. Therefore, in this study, to discuss the prudent approach and utilization of urgent wanted notice, we confirmed the current status of utilization, the effects of criminal arrest, and the influence factors related to criminal arrest based on actual data. A total of 112 cases of investigation were conducted by investigative agencies for urgent wanted notice using the media in the past 9 years (2010-2018), and the average arrest rate in the case of urgent wanted notices was 83.0%. Influence factors affecting the criminal arrest of urgent wanted notice were the frequency of press exposure and the demographics and criminal information on the public wanted posters were selected. The type of wanted notice (wanted man or wanted case), the type of crime (whether or not a specific violent crime), and the frequency of media exposure (total article volume) were found to be factors of influence. Specifically, In the case of a wanted man, there were many cases in which he was arrested by the tip-off of citizens, but there were many cases that led to the suicide of a wanted man. In conclusion, the investigative agency needs to take an approach to increasing the arrest rate and minimizing infringement of personal rights by limiting the category of crimes subject to wanted to specific violent crimes (murder, sex offenses, and robbery) when it conducts a wanted notice. It can also increase the frequency of media exposure (total amount of articles) to increase the possibility of arresting criminals.