A Multivariate Comparison of Mass Murder Types

• In Event: Serial and Mass Murder Incidents and Offenders

Abstract

The mass murderer is known by a variety of monikers in both public and academic spheres, from the family annihilator to the workplace avenger, from an individual run amok to the rampage school shooter. While most researchers acknowledge that the phenomenon is clearly heterogeneous, mass killing has defied classification, and currently no consensus typology exists. Most previous efforts at developing a classification scheme have focused on sorting these multicides into three broad groups, including family, felony, and public mass killings, relying exclusively on qualitative and case study approaches to do so. The present study employs multivariate tools to examine differences among types based on a database including incident, offender, and victim characteristics on the population of 318 mass killings in the United States between 2006 and 2016.

Author

• Emma E Fridel, Northeastern University