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Originally Posted by Penforhire
Is there a well defined transition between serial killers and assassination or war crimes? I'm thinking of, say, Shakespeare's Macbeth. Sort of a husband and wife team.
I'm thinking serial killing is about abnormal compulsions and emotional rewards (sexual or otherwise). Assassination, regicide, and war crimes have other primary motivations?
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Serial Killers seem to kill from their own twisted need to exert power over another without sanction from a higher power (the state) but with war crimes (like the Nazi's) the state was the one responsible for the murders being ordered and the actual killers were either just carrying out what they were told to do or simply accepted that the state wanted it done. In other words they (in their own minds at least) weren't responsible for the murders because the state had said it was ok to do it. Assassination is somewhere in between I think. While an assassin could be working alone and have a delusion that he/she is working the will of the people usually an assassin is hired by someone in opposition to the leader who is to be removed. They might not be part of the group that wants the man/woman dead and might in fact only have financial gain in mind when they take action.