Citation

Arias EA, Schlesinger LB, Pinizzotto AJ, Davis EF, Fava JL, Dewey LM. J. Forensic Sci. 2008; 53(6): 1455-1457.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, 445 W. 59th St, New York, NY 10019, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00861.x

PMID

18752553

Abstract

Suicide by cop has become a familiar topic among members of law enforcement, mental health professionals, and the general public. This paper presents two cases where police officers chose to commit suicide by getting other police officers to kill them. The two police officers studied, by examination of closed case files, were found to be similar to civilians who committed suicide by cop on several demographic (gender, age, history of mental illness, and suicide attempts), and situational (stress factors, trigger) variables. The cases help us to understand possible motives and management for individuals who choose to end their life in this manner.

Language: en