Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T07:04:52.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The epidemiology of abnormal homicide and murder followed by suicide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Jeremy Coid*
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital, London
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr Jeremy Coid, The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ.

Synopsis

A comparison of the homicide rate of mentally abnormal offenders and murderers who subsequently commit suicide, from a range of different populations, shows a uniform consistency when compared with the overall rates. ‘Laws’ are proposed which govern the rates within these subgroups in comparison with the population as a whole and which determine fluctuations. Qualitatively different psychiatric and sociological factors are thought to account for these findings and require further elucidation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bohannan, P. (1967). Patterns of homicide among tribal societies in Africa. In Studies in Homicide (ed. Wolfgang, M. E.), pp. 211237. Harper & Row: New York.Google Scholar
Coid, J. (1982). Homicide in Bermuda. M.Phil Thesis: University of London.Google Scholar
Criminal Statistics England & Wales (1980). Cmnd. 8098. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Criminal Statistics Japan (1980). Criminal White Paper. Printing Department, Ministry of Finance: Japan.Google Scholar
Criminal Statistics for Scotland (1979). Cmnd. 7676. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Gibbens, T. C. N. (1981). Shoplifting. British Journal of Psychiatry 138, 346347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibson, E. & Klein, S. (1969). Murder 1957 to 1968. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Gilles, H. (1976). Homicide in the West of Scotland. British Journal of Psychiatry 128, 105127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenland, C. (1971). Evaluation of violence and dangerous behaviour associated with mental illness. Seminars in Psychiatry 3, 345356.Google ScholarPubMed
Grunberg, F., Klinger, B. I. & Grumet, B. (1977). Homicide and deinstitutionalisation of the mentally ill. American Journal of Psychiatry 134, 685687.Google Scholar
Grunberg, F., Klinger, B. I. & Grumet, B. (1978). Homicide and community based psychiatry. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 166, 868874.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gudjonsson, G. H. & Petursson, H. (1982). Some criminological and psychiatric aspects of homicide in Iceland. Medicine, Science and the Law 22, 9198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Inghe, G. (1941). Mental abnormality among criminals. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica 16, 421458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, H. R. & Grant, R. W. (1982). The mentally ill in an urban county jail. Archives of General Psychiatry 39, 1722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landau, S. F. (1975). Pathologies among homicide offenders: Some cultural profiles. British Journal of Criminology 15. 157166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, T. & Blom-Cooper, L. (1976). Homicide in England. In Studies in Homicide (ed. Wolfgang, M. E.), pp. 2435. Harper & Row: New York.Google Scholar
Office of Health Economics (1981). Suicide and Deliberate Self-Harm. London.Google Scholar
Petursson, H. & Gudjonsson, G. H. (1981). Psychiatric aspects of homicide. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 64, 363372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radzinowicz, L. & King, J. (1977). The Growth of Crime. Hamish Hamilton: London.Google Scholar
Schloss, B. & Giesbrecht, N. A. (1972). Murder in Canada. A Report on Capital and Non-Capital Murder Statistics, 1961–1970. Centre of Criminology: University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Verkko, V. (1967). Static and dynamic ‘laws’ of sex and homicide. In Studies in Homicide (ed. Wolfgang, M. E.), pp. 3644. Harper & Row: New York.Google Scholar
West, D. J. (1965). Murder Followed by Suicide. Heinemann: London.Google Scholar
West, D. J. (1980). The clinical approach to criminology. Psychological Medicine 10, 619631.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolfgang, M. E. (1958). Patterns in Criminal Homicide. Oxford University Press: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, M. & Singer, K. (1973). Abnormal homicide in Hong Kong. British Journal of Psychiatry 123, 295298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed