title: The epidemiology of homicide-suicide in Italy: a newspaper study from 1985 to 2008.
abstract: Homicide-suicide is an event in which the murderer commits suicide after the homicide. There are at least 14 epidemiological studies on the topic, and all have found that homicide-suicide is more common among family members. The murderers are most often males and the victims females. There is no recent research on this phenomenon in Italy. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the incidence of homicide-suicide in Italy over a period of 24 yrs and to compare Italian data with published international data. We used information gathered by press agencies and from the four major Italian newspapers. Between 1985 and 2008, 662 cases of homicide-suicide were identified, with 1776 deaths. The murderer was male in 84.6% of the cases, typically using a firearm. The most common motivation was romantic jealousy, followed by socio-economic stress. The rate of homicide-suicide was 0.04%. Comparison with international studies is not always possible due to the lack of information for certain categories. The common factors identified may be helpful for prevention.
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department (Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs), Sapienza University of Rome, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Rome, Italy. paolo.roma@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roma
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spacca
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pompili
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lester
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tatarelli
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Girardi
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferracuti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D009042:Motivation; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D054041:Weapons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult