What makes a spree killer

Ted Bundy is classified as an organized serial killer; he methodically planned out his murder and generally stalked his victim for several weeks before committing the crime. He committed an estimated thirty murders from before his eventual capture.

Serial killers such as Ted Bundy are known to be organized and psychologically motivated to commit murder, which separates them from mass murderers who appear to kill randomly at one time. Mass murderers kill many people, typically at the same time in a single location. With some exceptions, many mass murders end with the death of the perpetrators, either by self-infliction or by law enforcement.

According to Dr. Michael Stone , professor of psychiatry at Columbia, mass murderers are generally dissatisfied people, and have poor social skills and few friends. Generally, the motives of mass murderers are less obvious than those of serial killers.

According to Stone, Rather than being a psychopath like most serial killers, mass murderers tend to be paranoid individuals with acute behavioral or social disorders. Like serial killers, mass murderers also display psychopathic tendencies, such as being cruel, manipulative, and uncompassionate. However, most mass murderers are social misfits or loners who triggered by some uncontrollable event.

Serial killers and mass murderers often display the same characteristics of manipulation and lack of empathy. What differentiates the two is the timing and numbers of the murders. Spree killings are occurring with increasing frequency across the world, and represent a range of investigative challenges. At present, there is little research into the nature, characteristics and attributes of spree killings or the individuals who perpetrate these offences.

The project involves the compilation of case, media and court reports on spree killings and mass shootings, to derive as comprehensive as possible a sample which can then be used to examine base rate occurrences of associated offence actions, and to explore the relationships between these and the backgrounds of offenders.

This will facilitate the identification of different sub-categories of spree killing incident, and the provision of information on the likely antecedent factors of each of these, which can be used for guiding policy and informing investigative practices in relation to such incidents. Evidence gathered will be drawn upon in helping guide law enforcement agencies in dealing with this ever-growing phenomenon. We won't record your recent searches as you have opted out of functional cookies.

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