Citation

Weeke A, Oberwittler D. Arch. Suicide Res. 2018; 22(1): 11-19.

Affiliation

Department of Criminology , Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law , Freiburg i.Br , Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, International Academy of Suicide Research, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13811118.2017.1304307

PMID

28339322

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate potential differences between homicide-suicide cases in which the perpetrator does or does not write a suicide note. As homicide-suicides are complex types of lethal violence for which the aggressor cannot be held accountable, suicide notes may be a valuable source of information about the background of these cases and the perpetrators' motives.

METHODS: We use a national sample of N = 288 homicide-suicide cases in Germany applying group comparisons and chi-square tests for relevant variables.

RESULTS: Perpetrators killing their own children and perpetrators leaving children behind before killing themselves write significantly more suicide notes than other perpetrators.

CONCLUSION: Even though note writers and no note writers are similar regarding most sociodemographic characteristics, other differences question the generalizability between these two groups.

Language: en

Keywords

filicide-suicide; homicide-suicide; suicide notes; uxoricide-suicide