Characteristics of Homicide-Suicide in Australia: A Comparison With Homicide-Only and Suicide-Only Cases

Abstract

Homicide-suicide represents one of the rarest forms of lethal violence but often precipitates calls to revise social, health, and justice policies. However, there is little empirical information about this type of violence. The current study uses two unique data sets to examine a wide range of individual and situational characteristics of homicide-suicide, with particular emphasis on establishing whether and how homicide-suicide differs from homicide-only and suicide-only. Findings suggest homicide-suicide may have unique characteristics that set it apart from both homicide-only and suicide-only, as well as sharing certain other characteristics with those two types of events.