Murder-suicide: bridging the gap between mass murder, amok, and suicide
| Date | 13 July 2015 |
| Pages | 179-186 |
| Published date | 13 July 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-07-2014-0132 |
| Author | Christopher Ryan Hagan,Matthew C Podlogar,Thomas E Joiner |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Aggression, conflict & peace |
Murder-suicide: bridging the gap between
mass murder, amok, and suicide
Christopher Ryan Hagan, Matthew C. Podlogar and Thomas E. Joiner
Christopher Ryan Hagan,
Matthew C. Podlogar are
Graduate Students and
Dr Thomas E. Joiner is Robert
O. Lawton Distinguished
Professor of Psychology, all at
the Department of Psychology,
Florida State University,
Tallahassee, Florida, USA.
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on mass murder and amok, and the
relationship of these phenomena to murder-suicide as well as to determine future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach –Research literature on mass murder, amok, and murder-suicide was
reviewed in the context of recent developments in the understanding of suicide, aggressive behavior, and
psychiatric diagnostics.
Findings –Amok, typically viewed as a culture-bound disorder, occurs throughout the world and is best
characterized as mass murder, similar to school shootings. Additionally, the phenomenon of mass murder
may be best understood as a form of murder-suicide, related to the phenomenon of suicide-by-cop.
Originality/value –This paper provides a review of the literature on murder-suicide, mass murder, and
amok spanning over 110 years in the context of modern psychological research, new insights into the
possible motivations of those who “run amok”and commit mass murder and provides future research
directions for this important phenomenon.
Keywords Suicide, Suicide by cop, Amok, Mass murder, Murder-suicide, Rampage
Paper type Conceptual paper
Typically, criminal acts including murder end, or are intended to end, with the perpetrator(s)
leaving the scene of the crime and attempting to evade capture and punishment by the
authorities (Mohandie et al., 2009). Certain cases, however, especially of indiscriminant violence,
frequently result in the death of perpetrator(s) shortly after or during the commission of the crime.
While the death of someone by the hand of another is not typically viewed as suicide, if an
assailant, with a desire to die, gives others, whether they be police officers or fellow citizens, no
other option than killing the assailant or being killed, the assailant’s death is labeled as a suicide,
as occurs in cases of “suicide-by-cop”(SbC; Mohandie et al., 2009; Dewey et al., 2013).
Compared to single-victim murders or the murder of numerous people on distinct occasions
(i.e. serial killing), cases of mass murder often feature more acts and threats of violence toward
bystanders, the use of more weapons, the deaths of more people per incident, an absence of
a specific motive against the people killed, and occurrence in public commercial areas (Lankford,
2013; Mohandie et al., 2009).
In this paper, we discuss the phenomenon we refer to as mass murder, described elsewhere in
similar terms as rampage or spree killing (Newman et al., 2004), but distinct from large scale,
systematic genocide. We define mass murder as the killing or attempted killing of multiple people
in a distinct, populated area. This may occur at one or multiple locations, however, if multiple
attacks occur, the time between violent events will be limited to several hours up to several days.
We connect mass murder to the related occurrence of SbC and the similar, but infrequently
discussed phenomenon of amok. Finally, we propose a conceptual shift in the understanding of
these related and possibly indistinct phenomena, asserting that these violent events are driven
Received 21 July 2014
Revised 20 October 2014
Accepted 3 December 2014
This work was in part supported
by the Military Suicide Research
Consortium (MSRC), an effort
supported by the Office of the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Health Affairs under Award No.
(W81XWH-10-2-0181). Opinions,
interpretations, conclusions and
recommendations are those of the
author and are not necessarily
endorsed by the MSRC or the
Department of Defense.
DOI 10.1108/JACPR-07-2014-0132 VOL. 7 NO. 3 2015, pp.179- 186,© Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1759-6599
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JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICTAND PEACERESEARCH
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PAG E 17 9
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