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Comparing Homicide‐Suicides in the United States and Sweden
Author(s) -
Regoeczi Wendy C.,
Granath Sven,
Issa Rania,
Gilson Thomas,
Sturup Joakim
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.13194
Subject(s) - homicide , poison control , occupational safety and health , injury prevention , suicide prevention , medical emergency , human factors and ergonomics , criminology , forensic engineering , medicine , engineering , political science , psychology , law
Research on homicides followed by suicides has largely relied on very localized samples and relatively short time spans of data. As a result, little is known about the extent to which patterns within cases of homicide‐suicides are geographically specific. The current study seeks to help fill this gap by comparing twenty years of homicide‐suicide data for Sweden and a large U.S. county. Although some of the underlying patterns in the two countries are similar (e.g., decreasing rates), a number of important differences emerge, particularly with respect to incidence, weapons used, perpetrator age, and relationship of the perpetrator to the victim.