Mass Murder and it’s motivational typologies
Mass murder has been a highly sensitive topic for quite some time now. We have heard of many that have occurred over the years, however, the media never gives a full picture of the type of motivational typologies that take place when the suspect commits the crime. We hear about the suspect’s past, their childhood, whether they have a mental illness that led them to commit the crime. However we rarely take a look at what is the motivation they carry to commit this horrific crime. In this post, you will learn about different types of motivation. To begin, Mass murder refers to the killing of four or more people, without a cooling off period, typically in a public place ( Rousseau, 2025).
Moving forward, there are many different typologies that correspond with Mass murder, however, what the media portrays, and what the literature/ text state, do not always sync. According to the book, there are five types of motivational typology that a mass murderer might fall under. Those five categories are: Revenge, Power, Loyalty, Profit, and Terror (Bartol & Bartol,2021). Although there are five categories of motivational typology, the most commonly used is revenge. To continue, we often only see media coverage on public mass killings, which often happen in schools, malls, and workplaces. However, this can also happen within the home. According to research, mass killings involving families have the highest number of ratings ( 48% = 218) ( Fox & Levin, 2022). As mentioned above, the most common motivational typology within these killings is conflict/revenge.
To conclude, there are a number of cases that illustrate different types of motivation for conducting the crime, revenge happens to be the number one cause for this sort of killing. That is because there might have been conflict with certain individuals within their circle, or outside their circle, which made them feel isolated. This might have been enough of a motive to want to commit the crime, in hopes that they gain the type of revenge they seek. However, they fail to realize the impact it has on the survivors, or the victims’ families
Reference:
Bartol, A.M. & Bartol C.R. (2021). Criminal Behavior: A psychological Approach (12th ed.). Pearson.
Fox.J.A. & Levin.J. (2022). Mass Murder in America:Trends, Characteristics, Explanations,and Policy Response. Homicides Studies. 26(1), 3-117
https://doi-org.ezproxy.bu.edu/10.1177/10887679211043803
Rousseau (2025).Module 6: The Psychology of Hate and Fear MET CJ720: Forensic Behavior Analysis. Boston University..