Homicide-suicide During The Past 16 Years In The Southern Half Of Osaka City And Surrounding Areas

摘要

Homicide-suicide (H-S) was defined as multiple victims found together, in which one has committed suicideafter murdering the other(s). Forensic autopsy cases over a 16-year period (1995-2011) at our institute, coveringthe southern half of Osaka city and surrounding areas (a population of about 1.6 million), were retrospectivelyreviewed. 18, involving 38 deaths, met the above-mentioned definition of H-S (1.125/year: 0.07 per 100,000persons per year). The majority of offenders were male (n = 14, 78.0%), while murder victims were mostlyfemale (n = 13, 65.0%); most murder victims were children (n = 9, 45.0%) and spouses (n = 8, 40.0%). Mostchildren killed by their parents (n = 6, 66.7%) were mentally or physically handicapped. Motives for H-S werehealth problems (n = 10, 55.6%) and the most common causes of death were strangulation/smothering formurder (n = 11, 55%) and hanging for suicide (n = 10, 55.6%). In conclusion, family health problems, includinghandicapped children, were the most frequent motive; adequate health care is therefore important to prevent H-S.Key words: Forensic autopsy, Homicide-suicide, Handicapped child, Family health problem.