mass murder
Descriptive term for the killing of many people in one or several linked events
Mass murder is the killing of many people in a single event or in several closely connected events, typically in connection with war, terrorism, persecution or organised violence against civilians. Under Danish law, the term is not defined as a separate criminal category; it functions as a descriptive term of language and of the field, describing the scale and character of the acts rather than a specific offence type.
In legal terms, mass murder must be classified under whichever specific provisions fit the facts. This may mean homicide under the general provisions of the Danish Penal Code (straffeloven), acts of terrorism, or — in the most serious cases, particularly during war or systematic persecution — crimes against humanity or genocide under international criminal law.
The term covers a broad spectrum of events. It can include mass attacks by individuals, such as the Orlando shootings (the Pulse case, 49 victims) or the killings committed by Lori Vallow, but also organised state or paramilitary actions, such as the SS officer's execution of 335 civilians in the Ardeatine massacre or the coordinated jihadist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. Common to all cases is that a significant number of people lose their lives as a result of planned or systematically executed acts of violence.
In true crime contexts, mass murder is used as a descriptive category that distinguishes cases with many victims from single killings. The threshold for when a number of killings is labelled mass murder is not fixed by law and varies between professional and journalistic contexts, but the common denominator is always that the scale of the killing exceeds that of a single killing or a very small number of killings.
