Serial and Mass Murder: Differences and Similarities

Criminal Law

Similarities and differences between the definitions for serial and mass murder
Serial murder and mass murder are two very different types of crimes wherein the motivations
and goals of a committer vary largely. The main difference between serial killer and mass
murderer is that, serial killer commits many murders with certain time intervals between each
murder while mass murderer commits many murders all at the same time. As per the U.S.
Bureau of Justice Statistics, mass murder refers to a single incident at the sameplace. On the
other hand, serial killers murder people in a series of events. The serial killers always have a
‘cooling off’ period between murders during which, they live normal life as normal people.
While the definitions of both the types of murders share common elements, the difference lies in
the context of certain factors such as the number of murders, types of motivation and
chronological features of murders (Bonn, 2015). Serial murder is classified by the number of
murders varying from two to ten and requires a pause or a period of time which distinguishes it
from mass murder, which is one-time event. On the other hand, the FBI demarcated mass murder
as killing of more than four people without any cooling-off period between the murders.
Purposes served by establishing the typology that apply to a mass murderer
In mass murders, the murderers select their victims either on random basis or victims are targeted
for specific reason, which is sensible only to the committer. The individual purpose behind mass
murder varies significantly and the most common among them is retaliation or revenge. Other
motivations include magnificence and the need for fame or attention. In some cases, the
murderer might be extremely troubled due to which, they might take such an offensive step
(Edelstein, 2014). From the socio-psychological viewpoint, mass murder is a retaliation act
against society by a distressed and stoical person.