TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2015//
TI  - Homicide-suicide in police families: an analysis of cases from 2007-2014
JO  - Journal of forensic practice
A1  - Klinoff, Vera A.
A1  - Van Hasselt, Vincent B.
A1  - Black, Ryan A.
SP  - 101
EP  - 116
VL  - 17
IS  - 2
N2  - PURPOSE      - There is a burgeoning body of evidence showing that police officers are at a higher risk of committing homicide-suicide than civilian counterparts. The purpose of this paper is to provide an update and expansion of previous work by Violanti (2007) on homicide-suicide in law enforcement families.     Design/methodology/approach      - Police-perpetrated homicide-suicide cases were obtained through an online forum dedicated to topics related to domestic violence in police families. A total of 43 police-perpetrated homicide-suicides was identified and reviewed for presence/absence of variables similar to those examined by Violanti (2007), with the addition of new factors. χ2 analyses were performed to test for inter-study differences in proportions on variables of interest.     Findings      - Results indicated a significantly smaller proportion of homicide-suicide incidents perpetrated by State officers. The remainder of the variable frequencies remained relatively consistent between studies. Of particular importance, domestic violence and divorce/estrangement were salient precursors in these cases.     Research limitations/implications      - Data were obtained from an online forum and media publications, which may not be regulated for accuracy and may contain biased data.     Practical implications      - The current results, combined with the prior research, underscore the need for prevention programs and departmental policies that: increase the accessibility of mental health services, increase the availability of services for victims of police-involved intimate partner violence, and stress the enforcement of current domestic violence laws.     Social implications      - Results indicate that domestic violence is still a significant problem in law enforcement personnel, with the potential for lethal consequences.     Originality/value      - To the authors knowledge, this is only the second study involving a formal analysis of police-involved homicide-suicide cases.     Keywords: Domestic violence, Intimate partner violence, Homicide-suicide, Murder-suicide, Police mental health, Police suicide    Publisher:      Emerald Group Publishing Limited<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 2050-8794
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JFP-07-2014-0019
ID  - ref1
ER  -