Mass murder-the sudden, explosive killing of a group of people-when committed by adults often is followed by the offender committing suicide. Recently in the United States, frequent cases of mass murder are reported as committed by adolescents. However, among juvenile mass murderers, there are no reported suicides (or attempts) by the offenders. This article provides a typology of mass murderers and offers a dynamic interpretation of the development of conscience and moral decisional capacity in adult and juvenile offenders. Preventive measures are explored along with methodological techniques that may distinguish between adult and juvenile mass murderers in their propensity to commit suicide after the events.Every homicide is unconsciously a suicide and every suicide is, in a sense, a psychological homicide. Typically, the killer is afraid of killing himself, afraid of dying, and therefore he murders someone else.David Abrahamsen (1973, p. 38) Mass murder is the sudden, intentional killing of more than one person in the same location and at the same time, usually by a single person. There are various types of mass murder, such as the revengeful act of an adult against groups of innocent people; the altruistic killing in which the perpetrator annihilates his own family or others to deliver them from imaginary suffering, often followed by the suicide of the killer at the site of the homicide; the pseudocommando action in which the killer, to achieve the maximum number of victims, accepts his own death, which he views as a form of sacrifice for a higher cause (e.g., terrorists); and recently, the mass murders perpetrated by young people on groups of other youngsters, usually in or around schools. 1 This type of violence has become ubiquitous, spreading from city to rural areas.As a matter of both perspective and preference, various categories of mass murder have emerged in the literature. For example, Holmes and Holmes (1992) offer further categories (i.e., disciples and the disgruntled), whereas Kelleher
