VIOLENCE IN AMERICA - A SURVEY OF SUICIDE LINKED TO HOMICIDES

This paper describes murder-suicide in the United States from 1990 thr ough 1995, using the cases reported in six major newspapers. Spousal m urder-suicide was the predominant type with a range of 42%-57%; famili cide-suicide was the second predominant type with a range of 22%-47%. The perpetrators were predominantly males; the victims were female sex ual partners or consanguineous relatives. Firearms (guns) were used in 90% of the cases. The author concludes that a national surveillance s ystem that specifically identifies and codes this phenomenon, and mult i disciplinary studies are necessary to hinder this phenomenon.