Much attention has been devoted in the past several years to public incidents of mass murder. Events such as the shooting on a Long Island commuter train in 1993, the massacre in Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, or the seemingly numerous workplace homicides have received intensive media coverage and public interest. As a consequence, a stereotype of mass murder has emerged that may or may not be very accurate. This study examines incidents of mass murder that occurred in public settings in the United States between 1965 and 1995 to more closely scrutinize both the events and the offenders involved.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Busch, K. A.
, & Cavanaugh, J. L. (1986). The study of multiple murder: Preliminary examination of the interface between epistemology and methodology. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1, 5-23.
2.
Dietz, P. E.
(1986). Mass, serial, and sensational homicides. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 62, 477-491.
3.
Dietz, M. L.
(1996). Killing sequentially: Expanding the parameters of the conceptualization of serial and mass killers. In T. O'Reilly-Fleming (Ed.), Serial & mass murder: Theory, research, and policy. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.
4.
Douglas, J. E.
, Burgess, A. W., Burgess, A. G., & Ressler, R. K. (1992). Crime classification manual: A standard system for investigating and classifying violent crimes. New York: Lexington.
5.
Etten, T. J.
, & Petee, T. A. (1995, November). Mass murder in public places: Questioning the validity of episode-motivated crime policy. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Boston.
6.
Evseef, G. S.
, & Wisniewski, E. M. (1972). A psychiatric study of a violent mass murder. Journal of Forensic Science, 17, 371-376.
7.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
. (1965). Crime in the United States—Uniform crime reports-1965. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
8.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
. (1969). Crime in the United States—Uniform crime reports-1969. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
9.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
. (1996). Crime in the United States—Uniform crime reports-1995. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
10.
Fox, J. A.
(1996). Uniform crime reports (United States): Supplementary homicide reports, 1976-1994 (ICPSR 6754). Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research.
11.
Gallemore, J. L.
, & Panton, J. A. (1976). “Motiveless” public assassins. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry Law, 4, 51-57.
12.
Galvin, J.A.V.
, & MacDonald, J. M. (1959). Psychiatric study of a mass murderer. American Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 1057-1061.
13.
Gresswell, D. M.
, & Hollin, C. R. (1994). Multiple murder: A review. The British Journal of Criminology, 34, 1-14.
14.
Hickey, E. W.
(1997). Serial murderers and their victims. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
15.
Holmes, R. M.
, & DeBurger, J. (1988). Serial murder. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
16.
Holmes, R. M.
, & Holmes, S. T. (1994). Murder in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
17.
House of Representatives Committee on Post Office and Civil Service
. (1992). A post office tragedy: The shooting at Royal Oak. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
18.
Jenkins, P.
(1994). Using murder: The social construction of serial homicide. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
19.
Lasley, J. R.
(1992). Age, social context, and street gang membership: Are “youth” gangs becoming “adult” gangs?Youth & Society, 23, 434-451.
20.
Lester, D.
(1995). Serial killers: The insatiable passion. Philadelphia: Charles Press.
21.
Levin, J.
, & Fox, J. A. (1985). Mass murder: America's growing menace. New York: Plenum.
22.
Levin, J.
, & Fox, J. A. (1996). A psycho-social analysis of mass murder. In T. O'Reilly-Fleming (Ed.), Serial & mass murder: Theory, research, and policy (pp. 55-76). Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.
23.
Norris, J.
(1988). Serial killers. New York: Anchor.
24.
Petee, T. A.
, York, T. S., & Padgett, K. G. (1996, November). Profiling mass homicide: An examination of mass murder in public settings. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Chicago.
25.
Rappaport, R. G.
(1988). The serial and mass murderer: Patterns, differentiation, pathology. American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 9, 39-48.
26.
Ressler, R. K.
, Burgess, A. W., & Douglas, J. E. (1988). Sexual homicide: Patterns and motives. New York: Lexington.
27.
Rowlands, M.
(1990). Multiple murder: A review of the international literature. Journal of the College of Prison Medicine, 1, 3-7.
28.
Scott, W. A.
(1955). Reliability of content analysis: The case of nominal scale coding. Public Opinion Quarterly, 19, 321-325.
