Before examining mass murder and mass murderers and how they relate to society, we need to define mass murder and make them distinct from their commonly mistaken for cousins, serial murder and serial murderers, “A person who kills many persons over periods ranging from one month to many years. The term was coined in the 1980s to differentiate from mass murderers who kill several people at once” (Serial, 1999, 1). Timothy J. McVeigh and Terry Nichols (Oklahoma City bombing) are mass murderers. Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer are serial murderers. The irony of mass murder is that more than individuals can be guilty of it. Whole governments are often responsible for mass murder. Generally, in the individual mass murderer, type falls into one of three categories: family murderers, paramilitary-type murderers, disgruntled worker murderers. We have also seen a dramatic rise in mass murder among high school children who have also killed family members and who might be seen as disgruntled students or peers.
The bottom line of mass murderers is that they are exhibiting deviance when they commit murder. There are many theories of deviance as a product of social organization and ideology, but one of the ones that best offers an explanation of how mass murderers are evolved in society is Emile Durkheim’s theory of social anomie and cult formation. Anomie refers to a state of normlessness or an erosion of norms. Durkheim believed that anomie is a condition that affects both individuals and society when norms are eroded, missing, or in contention. He argued that contemporary societies exhibit this condition because of a high level of cultural diversity which creates confusion over norms and values. Individuals are left without clear standards of conduct or values in this condition. When the social system comes into conflict, deviance develops, “Durkheim advanced a more general theory of deviance: in a society with strong socia...