Misplaced Pages

In forensic psychiatry, a pseudocommando is a mass murderer who commits premeditated murder–suicide mass killings driven by revenge fantasies, typically involving the stockpiling of weapons followed by a heavily armed commando-style attack.

They typically see their actions through a narcissistic lens as being morally justified in revenge against their unfair treatment by an uncaring world, and wish to "go out in a blaze of glory".

Some observers have divided mass killers into three categories: pseudocommandos, family annihilators, and hit-and-run killers.

See also

• Active shooter
• Anders Behring Breivik
• Columbine High School Massacre
• 2014 Isla Vista killings
• Tsuyama massacre

References

1. Knoll IV, James L. (2010). "The "pseudocommando" mass murderer: Part I, the psychology of revenge and obliteration". The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 38 (1): 87–94. PMID 20305080.
2. Knoll IV, L. (2010). "The "Pseudocommando" mass murderer: Part II, the language of revenge". The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 38 (2): 263–272. PMID 20542949.
3. Joel Achenbach (July 26, 2012). "'Pseudo-commandos' defy explanation". The Journal Gazette. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
4. Elaine Cassel (April 20, 2007). "The Tragedy at Virginia Tech: Cho Seung Hui and the Psychology of School Shooters". FindLaw. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
5. James L. Knoll IV (January 6, 2012). "The "Pseudocommando" Mass Murderer: A Blaze of Vainglory". Psychiatric Times Vol 29 No 1. Psychiatric Times. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
6. Dietz PE (1986). "Mass, serial and sensational homicides". Bull N Y Acad Med. 62 (5): 477–91. PMC 1629267. PMID 3461857.
7. Kocsis, Richard N. (2007). Criminal profiling international theory, research and practice. Totowa, N.J: Humana Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-1588296849.

This criminology-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Murder
• Killings by type
• Criminology stubs