Murder-suicide: bridging the gap between mass murder, amok, and suicide
Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research
ISSN: 1759-6599
Article publication date: 13 July 2015
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
Acknowledgements
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.
Citation
Hagan, C.R., Podlogar, M.C. and Joiner, T.E. (2015), "Murder-suicide: bridging the gap between mass murder, amok, and suicide", Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 179-186. https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-07-2014-0132
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited