Homicide Followed by Suicide: A Comparison with Homicide and Suicide

Homicide‐suicides are a rare yet very serious form of lethal violence which mainly occurs in partnerships and families. The extent to which homicide‐suicide can be understood as being primarily a homicide or a suicide event, or rather a category of its own is examined. In total, 103 homicide‐suicides were compared to 3,203 homicides and 17,751 suicides. These are all events that took place in the Netherlands in the period 1992 to 2006. Logistic regression analyses show that homicide‐suicides significantly differ from both homicides and suicides with regard to sociodemographic and event characteristics. The findings suggest that homicide‐suicide might be considered as a distinct phenomenon from both homicide and suicide.     

California's Suicide Decline, 1970–1990

From 1970 to 1990 California experienced a 32% decline in suicide, which was particularly pronounced among women, non-whites, the young, and urban dwellers. Suicide declines of over 50% were recorded in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and large decreases occurred in other coastal counties. Additionally, California was the only one of 51 states to show a consistent decline in teenage and young-adult suicide (accompanied by an 88% decrease in teenage drug and other poisoning deaths). Initial investigation of death certification, accident and homicide trends, economic measures, and prevention efforts did not produce an explanation for a suicide decrease of California's magnitude. However, the state does display anomalous trends in certain social measures (reduced divorce, rising non-White population, and rising homicide) that point to multifactorial hypotheses including demographic changes and changed attitudes toward violence. Review of the accuracy of past suicide certification procedures nationally is also indicated.     

Suicide: Media Impacts in War and Peace, 1910–1920

The literature of the impact of publicized suicide stories on suicide has neglected the influence of social contexts. In the present study, the context of a popular war was inspected. A Durkheimian perspective was tested, wherein the context of war would lower suicide through promoting social integration. Suicide stories in such times should have less of an impact than in times of peace. Data were collected on widely publicized suicide stories during the World War I decade. A Cochrane—Orcutt iterative time series analysis found that publicized suicide stories during war had no impact on suicide. In contrast, peacetime suicide stories were associated with an increase of 48 suicides. This is significant, since the electronic media were nonexistent and hence could not reinforce the publicity in the printed media, as they do today. Further analysis of the relationship found similar results for New York City.     

Suicide Rates in the World: 1950–2004

The cross‐country differences and the trends of suicide rates in 71 countries from 1950 to 2004 are described. The data are from the World Health Organization's Mortality Database. It shows that suicide rates vary greatly across countries, even within the same region or at similar levels of development. Random‐effect models were used to examine the between‐country and within‐country stabilities in suicide rates. The results show that more than 90% of the variance in suicide rates is due to between‐country differences, suggesting suicide rates display a strong temporal stability.     

A Historical Survey of Police Suicide in Queensland,Australia, 1843–1992

Police suicide research has yielded inconsistent results. An opportunity presented to survey Queensland police suicides in a historical context and add to the existing literature; the study describes changes in police suicide over time, the associated characteristics, and opportunities for intervention. Suicides were examined from the origins of police in Queensland in 1843 up to 1992. Suicide rates were higher earlier, around 60 per 100,000, declining to around 20 per 100,000 recently. The recent rate is lower than most other police studies but the same as the general community (employed). Most suicides were associated with psychological and physical ill health, alcohol abuse, and domestic problems, in keeping with general community surveys. However, occupational problems were more evident than is generally the case. The proximity in time of disciplinary events and suicides was striking. Future studies should explore the interactions between these factors.     

Female Labor Force Participation,Status Integration and Suicide, 1950–1969

ABSTRACT: Using Census data covering the 29 year period starting in 1950 this, study tests the hypothesis that (1) female labor force participation may result in more married women committing suicide due to the strain of household and outside working responsibilities and that (2) female labor force participation may also be associated with higher rates of male suicide due to the fact that it represents apparent failure of the husband as sole breadwinner ( Stack, 1978 ). Results show that during the 1950's male suicide was not associated with growth in the female labor force, but female suicide was. During the 1960s male suicide was negatively associated with female labor force participation, but the opposite was true for females. It is argued that working women represented a weakening of norms concerning sex roles. Apparently as more and more women entered the labor force, role conflict did ensue, but contrary to the above hypothesis it only increased female suicide potential. These results are discussed in terms of different normative sex role contexts of the 1950s and the 1960s.     

The Frequency of Suicide in Individual Danish Birth Cohorts, 1922–1991

In recent years many suicidologists have based their epidemiological studies on suicide on theories assuming that people born within the same period of time will follow the same suicidal patterns throughout their lives, and that variations in the annual rate of suicide will, therefore, reflect systematic differences between cohorts. Cohort analysis carried out on Danish data showed, however, that although some differences could be found as to the course of events during the life span of the cohorts and also when the material was adjusted for sex, no significant differences could be found between various birth cohorts in the total rates of suicide. The authors argue that the reason for this is that a cohort effect is only one of three dimensions of an analytical tool, namely, Age–Period–Cohort (APC) analysis, and that the balance between the three effects changes over time.     

Suicide Prevention in Adolescents (Age 12–18)

The epidemiology of adolescent suicide is summarized with particular emphasis on temporal trends by age and gender. “First-generation” prevention programs, as reviewed and critiqued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are then examined. In the absence of compelling empirically based behavioral outcome data, selective targeted “second-generation” prevention efforts are then described across the primary-secondary-tertiary continuum. These efforts are focused toward targets of individual predisposition, the social milieu, or proximal agents associated with high risk for suicidal behaviors. Finally, with an eye toward the future, current obstacles and unanswered questions are explored as they relate to opportunities and hopes for change in effecting reduced rates of these behaviors.     

Suicide Prevention in Adults (Age 30–65)

Relatively little is known about midlife suicides, compared to adolescent and elderly suicides. A life-span model of suicidal behaviors is suggested as a heuristic conceptual tool. General midlife tasks and crises, as outlined by Levinson and Erikson, are reviewed. However, more than routine midlife developmental problems occur in most suicides. Some of the possible distinctive traits of midlife suicides (versus younger and older suicides) include: loss of spouse, years of heavy drinking, reaching the age of high depression risk, and occupational problems (including unemployment, inability to work, and retirement). Midlife suicide rates tend to be highest among white males, although female suicide rates peak in midlife. The paper concludes with a review of assessment and treatment issues related to a half-dozen high-risk midlife suicide types.     

The Media and Suicide: A Nonadditive Model, 1968–1980

Unlike previous work, the present investigation tests a nonadditive model of the suggestion/imitation. Suicide stories are predicted to have the greatest effect on suicide in times of high suicidogenic conditions. The latter are measured in terms of unemployment. Data on the American monthly suicide rate are analyzed using Cochrane Orcutt techniques. While support was found for the nonadditive model based on an interaction effect between media stories and the rate of unemployment, it did not prove more powerful than an additive model. Future work is needed, however, for a systematic testing of the nonadditive thesis.     

Temporal Trends and Geographic Patterns of Teen Suicide in Alaska, 1979–1993

The author analyzed death certificate and U.S. census data to document trends in suicide rates among Alaskans 14–19 years of age. During 1979–1993, Alaskan teenagers had a suicide rate of 31.5 per 100,000 persons per year. Suicide rates varied up to sixfold by race, gender, and local census area of residence; in particular, Alaska Native males had one of the highest documented suicide rates in the world. Suicide rates increased two- to threefold during the study period for persons less than 18 years of age, while remaining stable for older teenagers. Within census areas, suicide rates correlated inversely with the percentage of all households headed by a married couple.     

Suicide Prevention in Young Adults (Age 18–30)

The rate of suicide in young adults has more than doubled since 1950. This paper presents some explanations for this rise and analyzes the diagnoses and population groups whose high rates of suicide contribute most of this increase. The factors leading to suicide are presented for each group, and preventative interventions are developed from the analyses. Groups that can be readily affected by suicide reduction measures are discussed, and methods for reducing their suicide rates are proposed.     

Suicide Prevention in the Elderly (Age 65–99)

Suicide rates by age are highest among older adults. Subpopulations of elderly adults at high risk are identified, including White males, the target of a Healthy People 2000 Objective. Several specific programs are described and a range of measures to prevent suicide in late life are suggested. These measures include primary prevention steps related to education and information dissemination, and secondary prevention involving early identification and assessment of the depressed and suicidal as well as improved referral efforts.     

Classification of Attempted Suicide: A Review of Empirical Studies, 1963–1993

A review was carried out on empirical studies on the classification of attempted suicide over the period 1963-1993. Our aim was to investigate whether there is research evidence for a valid classification of homogeneous subgroups of suicide attempters. After assessment of the research quality, 32 studies were selected for comparison. Although there is lack of consistency among the studies, indications were found for two clearly distinguished subgroups characterized by mild and severe suicide attempts, which constitute the opposite poles of a one-dimensional concept of severity.