title: Intimate femicide-suicide in South Africa: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the incidence and patterns of intimate femicide-suicide in South Africa and to describe the factors associated with an increase in the risk of suicide after intimate femicide (i.e. the killing of an intimate female partner).
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional retrospective national mortuary-based study was conducted at a proportionate random sample of 25 legal laboratories to identify all homicides committed in 1999 of women aged over 13 years. Data were collected from the mortuary file, autopsy report and a police interview.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 1349 perpetrators of intimate femicide,19.4% committed suicide within a week of the murder. Suicide after intimate femicide was more likely if the perpetrator was from a white rather than an African racial background (odds ratio, OR: 5.8; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.21-27.84); was employed as a professional or white-collar worker rather than a blue-collar worker (OR: 37.28; 95% CI: 5.82-238.93); and owned a legal gun rather than not owning a legal gun (OR: 45.26; 95% CI: 8.33-245.8). The attributable fraction shows that 91.5% of the deaths of legal gun-owning perpetrators and their victims may have been averted if this group of perpetrators did not own a legal gun.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  South Africa has a rate of intimate femicide-suicide that exceeds reported rates for other countries. This study highlights the public health impact of legal gun ownership in cases of intimate femicide-suicide.
authors.affiliation: Gender and Health Unit, Medical Research Council, South Africa. shanaaz.mathews@mrc.ac.za
authors.forename: Shanaaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mathews
authors.forename: Naeemah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abrahams
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jewkes
authors.forename: Lorna J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lombard
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vetten
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001344:Autopsy; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003644:Death Certificates; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006708:Homicide / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011634:Public Health; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000145:classification*; D012923:Social Class; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D013405:Suicide / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014930:Women