Moving past sporadic eruptions, discursive killing, and running amok: recognizing the convergence of the serial and spree killer
| Pages | 138-146 |
| Date | 05 August 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-03-2019-0009 |
| Published date | 05 August 2019 |
| Author | Enzo Yaksic |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Moving past sporadic eruptions,
discursive killing, and running amok:
recognizing the convergence of the serial
and spree killer
Enzo Yaksic
Abstract
Purpose –Rapid sequence homicide offenders (RSHOs), formerly spree killers, are an understudied
population due to the confusion surrounding their classification in relation to serial murderers. The paper aims
to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach –An exploratory, comparative analysis of 56 RSHOs and 60 serial
murderers was conducted on US-based data from 2014 to 2018 derived from the Consolidated Serial
Homicide Offender Database to determine similarities and differences between the cohorts.
Findings –RSHOs and serial murderers are similar in that they often kill their victims using a singular method,
have limited mobility, kill a similar number of victims both known and unknown to them and are both
supremely motivated by domestic anger. There is an inverse relationship between serial murderers and
RSHOs: as one group increases in prevalence the other decreases.
Practical implications –In order to divert men into more pro-social activities, attention must be dedicated
to increasing mental health services that provide them with the tools to diffuse their hatred and couple that
with effective gun control strategies and ways to enhance the compromised anger management skills of a
generation of volatile men.
Originality/value –Academicianshave been hesitant to juxtaposethese offenders but basedthis conclusion
on surface-leveldifferences. A reimaginingof these categoricalstructures is needed.The once clear delineation
between these cohortsmay continue to shrink and synchronize until one subsumes the other.
Keywords Spree killing, Victimization, Violence, Criminology, Definitions, Serial homicide
Paper type Research paper
The recent miniseries The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018) and film The Highwaymen
(2019) reintroduced an unresolved debate which began many years ago[1] when the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) advised that “spree killers,”or those who murder multiple people
over several days, should be classified as serial homicide offenders (Morton and Hilts, 2008). This
was an unpopular edict as serial and spree killers had traditionally been separated into distinct
classes by chronology, location and motive. Some asked if serial and spree killings are truly
different crimes (Salfati et al., 2006) and combined these cohorts together (Culhane et al., 2014;
DeLisi and Scherer, 2006; Gurian, 2009) as they may not be distinguishable (Osborne and
Salfati, 2015) given that serial murderers often kill in a “spree-like”or rapid sequence manner over
a few days’or weeks’time (Schlesinger et al., 2017). This paper aims to demonstrate where
rapid sequence homicide offenders (RSHOs) fit in the broader scheme of criminal offenders and
reexamine the spree/serial killer categorical structures given the recent preponderance of the
understudied RSHO, formerly named “spree killers”now defined as those that kill more than one
victim within a 14-day period.
Researchers have begun to call for data-driven comparative examinations of multiple murder
(Silver et al., 2019) as definitional discordance has impacted research design and confused the
Received 11 March 2019
Revised 13 June 2019
3 July 2019
Accepted 10 July 2019
Enzo Yaksic is based at Serial
Homicide Expertise and
Information Sharing
Collaborative, Boston,
Massachusetts, USA.
PAGE138
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JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY
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VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019, pp. 138-146, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2009-3829 DOI 10.1108/JCP-03-2019-0009
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