Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents case studies for a range of extreme acts of violence, including: mass shooting, school shooting, serial homicide and lone-actor terrorism. It discusses Compulsive Criminal Homicide, which attempts to bridge legal, academic and clinical perspectives on serial homicide. Two case studies of serial homicide offenders are explored in detail. A brief case study of Dennis Nilsen is also covered in this book. Nilsen has been described as the British equivalent of Jeffrey Dahmer and it is useful to highlight the parallels between these serial homicide offenders in terms of their premortem and postmortem interactions with their victims as well as the psychological motivations underlying their extreme acts of violence. The psychology of school rampage shooters is studied, first with a review of the theoretical literature and then with the examination of a detailed case study of school shooter Adam Lanza.