title: Mass murder: causes, classification, and prevention.
abstract: This article discusses common psychological and social factors in mass murders and outlines a proposed classification system to coordinate future research efforts. The final communications of two mass murderers are analyzed to demonstrate that the forensic psycholinguistic approach may assist in providing an enhanced understanding of the motives, psychopathology, and classification of mass murderers whose offenses can seem similar from a purely behavioral perspective.
authors.affiliation: Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, 750 East Adams Street, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA. knollj@upstate.edu
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Knoll
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000379:methods; D006708:Homicide / Q000145:classification* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011578:Psycholinguistics / Q000379:methods*; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology