As North America and the rest of the world try to answer the question 'why' when it comes to the murder of innocent school children, current psychiatric research uncovers patterns to apparently random and motiveless 'mass' killings, which might reveal clues as to their impetus.In a paper just published in the academic journal Psychiatric Clinics of North America, entitled 'Mass Murder: Causes, Classification, and Prevention', Dr James Knoll from the Division of Forensic Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, New York, reports the most up to date current psychiatric understanding of mass killers.
From tragedy in the US to tragedy closer to home, the clamour for answers in the wake of the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha continued this week with calls for an inquiry into both how the hospital handled the prank call that preceded her suicide, and also practices at the radio station where the calls where made from. With the revelation this weekend that three different suicide notes were left, including one which allegedly criticised colleagues at the King Edward VII hospital where Jacintha worked, and where the Duchess of Cambridge was treated, those calls for answers are not going away.