Homicide–suicides in Romania and the role of migration

Abstract

Homicide–suicides are the term for homicides followed by the suicide of the offender. This study utilized police statistics, information from the penal files and an online search of news reports to establish the prevalence of homicide–suicides in Romania. We compare characteristics of homicide–suicides among current or former Romanian emigrants and Romanians who never emigrated. The estimated homicide–suicide rate was 0.005–0.146 per 100,000 inhabitants in Romania between 2002 and 2013. Intimate partners committed significantly more homicide–suicides among emigrants than non-emigrants. Emigrant homicide–suicides also had significantly more reports of prior abuse than non-emigrant homicide–suicides. The findings of this study call for improvements in intimate partner violence prevention in Romania and among Romanian migrant communities abroad.