title: Homicide-suicide events in Southwestern Croatia, 1986-2009.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence and characteristics of homicide-suicide events in Southwestern Croatia from 1986-2009 relying on autopsy reports of the Department of Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics, Rijeka and police records. A total of 17 cases involving 19 victims were identified. The perpetrators were most often men (82%), living in a spousal relationship with the victim. In 76.5% cases, suicide was committed immediately after homicide, and the same mean (most often an illegal firearm) was used for both. After examining the belongings of those involved in homicide-suicides, two factors differentiated our study from others, i.e. more victims and perpetrators were from the lower socioeconomic class and explosives were used in two homicide-suicide (12%) cases. The greater frequency of explosive used in homicide-suicide events may be a result of factors associated with the recent war fought in Croatia. These data prove the influence of sociological, historical and also political factors on the characteristics of a rare event such as homicide-suicide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics, Rijeka University, Rijeka, Croatia. mengija@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Morana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cengija
authors.forename: Drazen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cuculic
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petaros
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sosa
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bosnar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017523:Croatia; D053834:Explosive Agents; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012923:Social Class; D018454:Spouses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D053834:Explosive Agents