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Note: Varies by jurisdiction
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A spree killer is someone who kills two or more victims in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders".
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (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 marking the difference between a spree killer and a serial killer. 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 murderers 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 term is 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 for the second one. He is also noted with other 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 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 "[t]he 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". Andrew Cunanan is given as an example for spree killing, while Charles Whitman is mentioned in connection with mass murder, and Jeffrey Dahmer 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. Under this particular definition of spree murder, Richard Chase, who is usually labelled as a serial killer, would actually be a spree killer because he committed his murders within a 30-day period. 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 explains that the identity of a serial killer is generally unknown until he is caught, and the mass murderer's identity is learned only after he has committed his crime. The identity of the spree killer, on the other hand, usually becomes known by police while his spree continues, and he is sought as a fugitive.
Another term, rampage killer, has sometimes been used to describe spree killers, but it does not differentiate between mass murderers and spree killers.
- Charalambous, Nick, and Meryl Dillman. "No evidence of spree killer yet, police say". The Anderson Independent-Mail (Anderson, South Carolina), December 17, 2006. Accessed July 8, 2008.
- Morton, Robert J., and Mark A. Hilts (eds.) Serial Murder – Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Accessed July 4, 2009.
- Levinson, David (ed.): Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, Vol. 4; Berkshire Publishing Group, 2002. p. 1565
- Levinson, p. 1038.
- Douglas, John E. & Olshaker, Mark: The Anatomy Of Motive; Simon and Schuster, 1999.
- Levin, Jack & Fox, James Alan: Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace, Berkley Books, 1991.
- Levin, Jack: Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers, Prometheus Books, 2008. p. 49.
- Fuller, John R. & Hickey, Eric W.: Controversial Issues in Criminology; Allyn and Bacon, 1999. pp. 36.
- Holmes, R. M, & Holmes, S. T.: Serial Murder; SAGE Publications, 2010. pp. 35.
- Holmes, R. M, & Holmes, S. T.: Serial Murder; SAGE Publications, 2010. pp. 36.
- Holmes, R. M, & Holmes, S. T.: Serial Murder; SAGE Publications, 2010. pp. 6.
- Douglas, p. 192.