Abstract

Murder - suicide is an event where a person kills another and then suicide. Murder - suicide is more rare than other forms of violent deaths, but it is certainly mostly tragic and usually more shocking than homicide or suicide when taken individually, especially when the event involves a mass murder.

This chapter will present an overview of the main types of murder-suicide, outlining the most common features of the crime and providing some guidelines on prevention. Thematic context of homicide followed by suicide, including victim - perpetrator relationship, age, sex, race, ethnicity, and occupation in addition to precipitating factors, motivation, type of fatal injury, and location of event, is discussed.

For each different category of crime the incidence of the phenomenon in the Italian context is given. The Italian data were collected in a span of 24 years (from 1 January 1985 to December 31, 2008), using the information disclosed by the state press agency and the four national newspapers of greater circulation.