The largest mass killings in history have been attempts to exterminate ethnic and other groups; for more about this subject see genocide. This article refers to non-genocidal mass killings.
Although "genocide" does not necessarily require actual killing, only acting on a plan to exterminate an ethnic group, mass murder by definition involves killing a large number of people.
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2 Mass murder by terrorists 3 Mass murder by individuals 4 Mass murder in warfare 5 See also |
R. J. Rummel, a political scientist, coined the word democide to cover mass murder by a state. Some killings commonly viewed as genocide are actually democide or mass murder because they involve killing for political or cultural reasons.
Examples include:
Mass murder by the state
In recent years, terrorists have performed acts of mass murder as acts of intimidation, and to draw attention to their causes. Examples of major terrorist incidents involving mass murder include:
Mass murder by terrorists
Outside of a political context, the term "mass murder" refers to the killing of several people at the same time. Examples would include shooting several people in the course of a robbery, or setting a crowded nightclub on fire. This is an ambiguous term, similar to serial killing and spree killing. The USA Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a mass murder as: "[involving] the murder of four or more victims at one location, within one event."
The wrongful killing of large numbers of civilians or prisoners during war is called a war crime although it may also be genocide if the proper ethnic motivation is present as in the killings which occurred in the breakaway republics of the former Yugoslavia or in the killing of the Pequot in colonial America.Mass murder by individuals
Mass Murderers
Mass murder in warfare