Serial Killers and Mass Murderers: Characteristics of Organized and Disorganized Killers

SERIAL KILLERS AND
MASS MURDERERS

CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIZED
KILLERS
 One of the main characteristics of organized killers is that they
plan their offense from beforehand.
 Another characteristic is that they engage in killings because
of personal reasons.
 Moreover, in organized killing there is use of restrains where
the victim is immobilized (Woodiwiss, 2017).

CHARACTERISTICS OF
DISORGANIZED KILLERS
 One of the main characteristics of disorganized killing is
that the offense is spontaneous in nature.
 In disorganized killing, the killer does not have any
personal grudges with the victims (Woodiwiss, 2017).
 Third, there is minimal or no communication in
disorganized killing.

CLUES TO FIND IN ORGANIZED
KILLING
 In order to understand that a killing was pre-planned, the clue to look for is the
personal records of the victims. If the killer had a personal relation with the victim,
then it is organized killing (Chadee et al., 2017).
 Secondly, in organized killing the weapon of interest usually goes missing.
 Another clue which indicates that it is an organized killing is if the body of the victim
is hidden.