Serial killers are not the same as mass shooters. Please don’t put them in the same category. <modsnip> I doubt he is even looking for notoriety. He is just filled with rage for the government. He is more like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols then a serial killer.
Respectfully, I think Foxfire knows the different classifications, we've only been discussing "spree shootings" vs "rampage shootings" vs "serial killers", etc etc for months, complete with FBI links and classifications. He answered my question which was "is it likely that this recent rampage shooting is a crime of escalation, as seen in other types of crimes". He also prefaced his opinion with words like "prerequisites" and "likely". I appreciate any insight Foxfire has to offer, I think he has studied enough serial killers, AND actively participated in NoCo and here to be able to offer a valuable opinion, imo. In addition, we do not know that any of the other shootings around here are not politically motivated as well.
Well well, knew that was coming...
What else, Dear?
Well, margarita25, imo Robert Lewis Dear, is an anomaly, and is no stranger to the game of the murder of unsuspecting innocent victims for many reasons. Imo, at the age of 57 he didn't just wake up one day and decide to go to the Planned Parenthood facility with an arsenal of weapons, IEDs, and ammunition and unleash terror on random victims, Law Enforcement, and the entire Colorado Springs community and beyond. Imo, a very dark and bleak portrait of his past is beginning to emerge and it would be logical to conclude that he is likely involved in some, if not many of the unsolved murders and shooting incidents in Colorado.
Mass murderers, unlike serial killers, kill a large number of 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, 96.5% of mass murderers are male, and a majority of them are not clinically psychotic. Rather than being a psychopath like most serial killers, mass murderers tend to be paranoid individuals with acute behavioral or social disorders. Similar to serial killers, mass murderers also display psychopathic tendencies, such as being cruel, manipulative, and un-compassionate. However, most mass murderers are social misfits or loners who were just pushed over an edge 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. Serial killers commit murder over a long period of time, and often in different places, while mass murderers kill within a single location and time-frame.
http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serials-killers-vs-mass-murderers
__________________
FBI Serial Murder - NCAVC/BAU 2 & 3 Symposium September 2, 2005
https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder
Message from Director Mueller
Every day, law enforcement officers across America are called to respond to murders. Each homicide case is tragic, but there are few cases more heartrending and more difficult to understand than serial murder.
II. Definition of Serial Murder
In the past thirty years, multiple definitions of serial murder have been used by law enforcement, clinicians, academia, and researchers. While these definitions do share several common themes, they differ on specific requirements, such as the number of murders involved, the types of motivation, and the temporal aspects of the murders. To address these discrepancies, attendees at the Serial Murder Symposium examined the variations in order to develop a single definition for serial murder.
The validity of spree murder as a separate category was discussed at great length. The general definition of spree murder is two or more murders committed by an offender or offenders, without a cooling-off period. According to the definition, the lack of a cooling-off period marks the difference between a spree murder and a serial murder.
Because it creates arbitrary guidelines, the confusion surrounding this concept led the majority of attendees to advocate disregarding the use of spree murder as a separate category. The designation does not provide any real benefit for use by law enforcement.
The different discussion groups at the Symposium agreed on a number of similar factors to be included in a definition. These included:
• one or more offenders
• two or more murdered victims
• incidents should be occurring in separate events, at different times
• the time period between murders separates serial murder from mass murder
In combining the various ideas put forth at the Symposium, the following definition was crafted:
Serial Murder: The unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events.
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