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Abstract
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Suicide notes from murder-suicides were compared with notes from suicides in general. Few differences were identified, but the murder-suicides had fewer positive emotions in their suicide notes, but not more negative emotions or anger, suggesting that the murder-suicides were not simply angry over their interpersonal conflicts but rather more generally distressed.
Murder followed by suicide is not uncommon among samples of suicides. Buteau, et al. (1993) found a murder-suicide rate in Quebec (Canada) in 1988-1990 of 0.18 as compared with a murder rates of 2.35 per 100,000 per year and a suicide rate of 13.13. The murderer-suicides were primarily men, under the age of 40, using firearms, with recent marital separation and mental disorder. They killed spouses (32%), children under the age of 14 (35%) and strangers (23%). In Kentucky from 1985-1990, 6 percent of the homicides and one percent of the suicides were murder-suicides (Anon, 1991). The rate of murder-suicide was 0.3. In England, Milroy (1993) found that 5%-10% of murders were followed by suicide. These incidents usually were male assailants killing spouses, followed by children. Shooting was the most common method.
Aderibigbe (1997) classified American murder-suicides using victim-murderer relationship. The most common types were fathers murdering children, spouses murdering each other, lovers murdering consorts and extra-familial victims. Murders by mothers were less common than murders by fathers, and murders of children under the age of 16 were rare. Perpetrators were most often male and used firearms.
Haines, Williams and Lester (2010) compared the suicides of 22 Australian individuals who murdered another before dying by suicide with 22 other suicides matched for age and sex. The murder-suicides were in better physical health than the suicides, more often angry, violent and hostile prior to the murder-suicide, and more often motivated by interpersonal conflict. There were trends for the murder-suicides to less often have been never married, more often employed, more often using a gun for the suicide, less often withdrawn, less often anxious prior to the murder-suicide, but more often acting erratically or in a bizarre fashion. The two groups did not differ in whether they had previously attempted suicide, whether they left a suicide note, or in their recent psychiatric status.
The aim of the present study was to see whether an examination of the suicides of murder-suicides would throw more light on the psychodynamics of their acts
Language: en |