Mass murderers in the United States: predictors of offender deaths

Abstract

Objective: many mass murderers appear to care more about harming others than they do about protecting themselves, and they often commit suicide or refuse to surrender and are killed by police. The present study offers the first in-depth investigation of differences between mass murderers who live and die as a direct result of their offenses. Method: data on 308 offenders in the United States from January 2006 to May 2014 are subjected to quantitative analysis, including logistic regression. Results: findings suggest that those who die are older, less likely to have co-offenders, and more likely to commit public mass killings or family killings, which corresponds with Durkheim’s theories of suicide in numerous ways. Conclusion: ultimately, several specific improvements in suicide prevention strategies could potentially help to reduce the prevalence of these high-fatality crimes.

Keywords:

• murder-suicide
• mass murder
• mass killings
• family violence
• rampage shootings

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the USA Today data journalist team for building the database used for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.