A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

s or

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

s in a short time, in multiple locations. The

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal offenders, victims of crime, correlates of crime, and the operation of cri ...

defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders".

Definition

According to the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...

(FBI), the general definition of "spree killer" is a person (or more than one person) who commits two or more murders without a cooling-off period; the lack of a cooling-off period marks the difference between a spree killer and a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

. The category has, however, been found to be of no real value to law enforcement, because of definitional problems relating to the concept of a "cooling-off period". Serial killers commit clearly separate murders, happening at different times.

Mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

ers are defined by one incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders. How to distinguish a spree killer from a mass murderer, or from a serial killer, is subject to considerable debate, and the terms are not consistently applied even within the academic literature. For example, ''The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment'' lists five different categories of spree killers and cites Mark O. Barton as an example of the second one. He is also noted alongside mass murderers, such as Patrick Sherrill, in the respective entry about mass murder. In ''The Anatomy Of Motive'', John E. Douglas cites Charles Starkweather and

Andrew Cunanan Andrew Phillip Cunanan (August 31, 1969 – July 23, 1997) was an American spree killer who murdered five people over three months from April 27 to July 15, 1997. His victims include Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace and Chicago real est ...

as examples of spree killers, while Jack Levin calls Starkweather a mass murderer and Cunanan a serial killer. In ''Controversial Issues in Criminology'', Fuller and Hickey write that " e element of time involved between murderous acts is primary in the differentiation of serial, mass, and spree murderers", later elaborating that spree killers "will engage in the killing acts for days or weeks" while the "methods of murder and types of victims vary".

is given as an example of spree killing, while

Charles Whitman Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, Whitman used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, then went to ...

is mentioned in connection with mass murder and

Jeffrey Dahmer Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (; May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994), also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who killed and dismemberment, dismembered seventeen men and boys ...

with serial killing. In ''Serial Murder,'' Ronald M. Holmes and Stephen T. Holmes define spree murder as "the killing of three or more people within a 30-day period" and add that killing sprees are "usually accompanied by the commission of another felony." They cite Charles Starkweather and the Beltway Snipers as examples of spree killers. Ronald and Stephen Holmes define serial murder as "the killing of three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant cooling-off period between the killings." Under this definition, Andrew Cunanan would be categorized as a serial killer and not a spree killer. Douglas wrote that the identity of a serial killer is generally unknown until they are caught, and a mass murderer's identity is learned only after they have committed the crime. The identity of the spree killer, on the other hand, usually becomes known by police while the spree is still in progress. Another term, ''rampage killer'', has sometimes been used to describe spree killer.''sfgate.com'' Jul. 18, 1997
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Definition

See also

References

Further reading