Once their killing spree is over, subjects of this type most often either commit 🤬 or force law enforcement to use deadly force against them ("🤬 by cop"). They prefer death over the prospect of indefinite incarceration or institutionalization. 

The mass murderer, while being nearly identical, differs in the fact that their murders will occur in one place. A spree killer may "visit" multiple locations, sometimes over the course of several days.

Unlike serial killers, spree killers most often use firearms or similar weapons. Mass murderers most often use explosives, firearms, or biological/chemical weapons in the case of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the Japanese terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo.

Sykes (1958) identified five types of deprivation of imprisonment, which he refers to as ‘The Society of Captives’. These include: deprivation of liberty; deprivation of goods and services; deprivation of heterosexual relationships; deprivation of autonomy; deprivation of security. This implies that imprisonment strips people of their identity and dehumanises them, as they begin to lose their connection to society and the world outside of prison. This is supported by Irwin and Owen (2005) who argue that the effects of imprisonment can enhance psychological damage, especially with these types of deprivation put in place in prisons. However, Sykes ‘deprivation of heterosexual relationships’ could be seen as outdated due to how this does not necessarily relate to todays modern society, ignoring the possibility of homosexual and non sexual relationships. 

Milgram’s obedience study focused on conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. His study was influenced by the Nazii's killings in World War 2 and whether German’s were particularly obedient to authority figures as an explanation for these killings. Milgram’s experiment took place at Yale University in 1963, which involved a ‘learner’ figure and a ‘teacher’ figure. The learner was fixed to be a confederate and the participants played the role of the teacher in which they ask the ‘learner’ multiple questions. The participants would give them a fake electric shock that they believed to be real and that increased up to a deadly level of 450 volts (McLeod, 2007). The experimenter, acting as the authority figure, gave a series of prods to make sure the participant continued with the study. Results showed that 65% of the participants obeyed the authority figure and continued to 450 volts. This proved that people are likely to obey orders given by authority figures (in this case the experimenter) even if it was to extreme levels. However, the results lack validity as the sample consisted of all males and so limits the generalisability to males only excluding females. It was also argued that there were many ethical issues including protection from harm as the participants felt stressed whilst taking part in the experiment as they believed they had no choice to leave the study. This also links to deception as participants believed they were shocking people when they actually were not. 

The general definition a psychopathic disorder, defined by the 2007 Mental Health Act, is “any disorder or disability of the mind” (Hollin, 2013). Robert Hare had a more specific definition and identified five factors that concisely describe a psychopath. They include: an inability to develop empathetic relationships, an unstable lifestyle, and inability to accept responsibility for anti-social behavior, an absence of intellectual and psychiatric problems, and weak behavioral control (Hare, 1980). 

Megan