HOMICIDE SUICIDES BETWEEN ADULT SEXUAL INTIMATES - AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY

Little research that focuses upon homicide-suicides between adult sexu al intimates has been conducted to date. Yet U.S., U.K., and Australia n studies on homicide and homicide-suicide show that a disproportionat e number of those that kill and subsequently take their own lives are the husbands or estranged sexual intimates of their victims. This pape r provides some retrospective data on the historical, demographic, and situational traits of this type of homicide-suicide in Australia by l ooking at what, if anything, differentiates homicides between adult se xual intimates that include the suicide of the offender from those tha t do not. A lack of significant variation was apparent in histories of domestic violence, alcohol involvement, and unemployment between thos e who committed suicide and those who did not. However, if the offende r was a male estranged from his partner, born outside of Australia, wh o used a gun as the weapon and killed more than one victim, or was old er with an ailing wife, he was more apt to commit suicide. Using anecd otal case study material, causation or explanatory variables are also discussed. These appeared to cluster either around a theme of old age and ill-health or control and pathological-type of possessiveness. The author concludes that more research focusing on the differentiation b etween the two groups of offenders is necessary in order to better ide ntify contributory variables and to develop risk elements and informat ion for criminal justice practitioners and other service providers.