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Personally, mass murderers scare me a bit more only because I think it's probably easier to fight someone off if they only have a knife or a garrote versus someone armed to the teeth. But I can see serial killers being much more disturbing. Certainly, mass murderers have the ability to rack up higher body counts, but the record so far in America is 32. Serial killers sometimes kill hundreds before being caught. Their methods of killing are also usually slower, more elaborate, and more gruesome, compared to simply being shot to death. On the other hand, mass killers can be equally as Ax Crazy, if not more so. For example, some of the stuff in Eric Harris' diary would've made Hannibal Lecter cringe.
For me, I'd have to say serial killers. Seems they just insinuate themselves into everyday life (from what's published), and you just never know who might be one.
Mass killers, someone who takes a rifle to the mall, that's about the same as being in a car accident. It can happen at any time.
Both scary, but the serial guy is more frightening to me.
Serial killers scare me more. They are usually wolves in sheep's clothing. They can take someone off the street to some isolated place and do awful things for a prolonged period of time. Also a lot of victims might never be found. Really nightmare stuff.
They are both poor excuses for human beings but I find the serial killer the most terrifying.
It is just simple math. The murder rate in the United States for 2011 (the most recent year for which I could find stats-last year's probably haven't been fully crunched yet) was 4.7 murders per 100k. And serial/spree killings are a fairly small subset of all murders, so the numbers are even longer.
That said, I'd rather deal with a spree killer than a serial killer. A spree killing typically means that you either escape, are wounded but get treated fairly soon, or are dispatched fairly quickly. Torture, or some other unpleasant drawn out demise is less likely than with a serial killer, many of which like to prolong the event in ways that tends to be rather unpelasant for the other participant. Given a choice, I'd take the former.
I think serial killers are a bigger threat to my well-being because they can commit consecutive homicides without getting caught. When somebody engages in mass murder, there are usually various witnesses so that they cannot evade the scene without detection. Correct me if I am wrong; this is my sense of statistics.
I'm really not scared of either, but a mass murderer is (usually) not aiming especially for you -- you can tuck and roll and have a chance to get away. A serial killer who specifically wants you is a whole different type of problem.
I have never in my life given a second's thought to being scared of either.
I don't think anyone really sits around "thinking" about this type of thing. I don't, for sure. I think the question is posed for conversation's sake.
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