Graphical Portrait of a Mass Killer

Nothing in the profile of Christopher Jordan Dorner the most recent mass shooter in the news surprises me.  It might have a few months ago, but after going through the details of 53 mass killings and looking at some of the details about the killers and their lives, the story seems sadly familiar.

Alleged cop-killer details threats to LAPD and why he was driven to violence

 1) Mr. Dorner is ex military and law enforcement.

• 27 percent of the 53 killers I looked up were ex Military (2% were law enforcement), this is almost three times as high as in the general population (9 - 10%). 

 2) Mr. Dorner complains of racism, bias and corruption in his former workplace

• 34 % of the 53 Killers made complaints of bias, racism, bullying or other forms of discriminatory actions against themselves or others.  Some of these claims were substantiated, some were not and in some cases it will never be know if there was any truth in the allegations.

3) He was recently terminated from the LAPD, and had recently undergone disciplinary action

• When it comes to workplace violence, this is the most common thread among the killers. 30% of the 53 killers I looked at had undergone recent disciplinary action, including termination.  Also 57% of the killers were described as unemployed, many of them having recently lost their jobs (compared to ~7% in the general population).

•  Recent major life stressors including being terminated is also another common feature among many of the killers (60% had either just been terminated, disciplined, divorced, been unable to find a job, been in court for custody hearings or lost a loved one etc.)

4)  There were complaints about his temper from colleagues and his ex wife

• 49% of the 53 killers had a documented history of anger

 Here are some other statistics about the 53 Mass killers that I looked up:

Location of Killings (note many of the University killings can also be placed under the 'workplace' heading, making the workplace the most frequently targeted area).  Most of the residential killings were a result of domestic violence shootings.

Here I looked to see if the perpetrators had a criminal history, in light of the recent push to restrict gun ownership to 'law abiding' citizens, it is worthwhile to note that 60% of the killers had no criminal records.

47% had documented histories of mental health disorders/illness (the rate of mental health issues in the general population is around 50% while that of mental illness is around 20% and that of serious mental illness around 6%) , others showed signs of possible mental illness, however one thing of note is that several were either on, or had recently stopped a powerful antidepressant (it would be interesting to see if there was any correlation between the medications and the crimes).

This last one addresses the 'loner' stereotype.  This one is a hard one to measure, as some had at one time been outgoing and then became less outgoing after a life stressor, others were depressed and as such became withdrawn and some were true introverts.  However the idea that all of them were people with no social interactions (or very few) is not correct, many were married, some had children, others had been in relationships but were no longer in them.

Immigrants: ~20% of the killers were immigrants, it interesting to note that all of the killers of Asian descent were recent immigrants.

List of websites of the Killings I looked at

-->

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_School_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_University,_Fullerton_massacre

http://murderpedia.org/male.H/h/hilbun-mark-richard.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ysidro_McDonald%27s_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Seal_Beach_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oikos_University_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupertino_quarry_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_California_Street_shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covina_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_Distributors_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_O._Barton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Iowa_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Illinois_University_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Gravure_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Essex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakefield_massacre#Fatalities

http://reasonabledoubt.org/index.php/criminallawblog/entry/november-14-1991-fired-united-states-postal-service-employee-goes-on-shooting-rampage-today-in-crime-history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Grand_Rapids,_Michigan_mass_murder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_bombing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Minneapolis_workplace_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage_nursing_home_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westroads_Mall_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_IHOP_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binghamton_shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Ferguson_%28mass_murderer%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Tulsa_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Tulsa_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sherrill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_Kinkel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Nickel_Mines_School

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_massacre

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018167/Texas-gunman-Tan-Do-shot-wife-Trini-family-dead-sons-birthday-party.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Gene_Ashbrook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Felton_Parish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Seattle_cafe_shooting_spree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Jewish_Federation_shooting

http://murderpedia.org/male.D/d/deculit-anthony.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Sikh_temple_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Ratzmann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Azana_Spa_shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_Square_Shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crandon,_Wisconsin_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_San_Marco