Homicide-Suicide in Durban, South Africa

Abstract

This study investigated homicide-suicide in Durban, South Africa, for the years 2000 to 2001. The incidence was 0.89 per 100,000, higher than the international average. A majority of perpetrators (91%) and victims (87%) were Black African, proportional to their representation in the population. Perpetrators were typically men (in 95% of cases), older than, and intimate partners (in 75% of cases) of the female victims (in 100% of cases). Average ages of perpetrators and victims were 32 and 27, respectively. The security sector was overrepresented as an employment category for perpetrators. A firearm was used in 87% of the homicides and 80% of the suicides. The individuals involved in homicide-suicides in Durban are similar to homicide-suicide perpetrators and victims in industrialized countries. The fact that homicide-suicides in South Africa, as in most countries, involve almost exclusively men killing female intimates confirms the importance of examining and challenging social norms enabling male violence against women.

Case report: An extreme homicide–suicide by a 12-year-old girl

“…Previous studies show that the perpetrator who committed homicide-suicide was mostly male over 20 years of age who most often used a gun. Victims were usually their past or present wives or sexual partners (Bridges & Lester, 2011;Cooper & Eaves, 1996;Dogan, Demirci, Gunaydin, & Buken, 2010;Grabherr et al, 2010;Koziol-McLain et al, 2006;Krulewitch, 2009;Paschen & Püschel, 2007;Richardson & Hemenway, 2011;Roberts, Wassenaar, Canetto, & Pillay, 2010;Travis, Johnson, & Milroy, 2007). Our case differs from previously published cases by a 12-year-old girl and who killed her three-year-old sister.…”

Homicide–Suicide in China: an Exploratory Study of Characteristics and Types

“…1, there were 63 reported cases of multiple-victim homicide-suicide in China from 2000 to 2014. This sample is small, especially considering the population and size of China, but it is comparable to other homicide-suicide studies (e.g., Roberts et al 2010;Volantia 2007;Yip et al 2009) and mediated by the study's focus on homicide-suicide incidents with two or more homicides. The mean number of cases per year was 4.2 (range 2-11) with a modal number of 3.…”

“…Following calls to develop a research strategy based on reports of these events (Eliason 2009;Liem and Oberwittler 2012) and recent efforts to understand homicide-suicide outside of the United States and Europe (e.g., Adinkrah 2003;Carcach and Grabosky 1998;Chan et al 2004;Hata et al 2001;Jena et al 2009;Moskowitz et al 2006;Roberts et al 2010;Yip et al 2009), the current study examined the phenomenon of multiple-victim homicide-suicide in mainland China. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to do so in this unique context- Yip et al (2009) came closest with their study of homicide-suicide in Hong Kong.…”

“…It is highest in the USA (Felthous and Hempel 1995;Malphurs and Cohen 2002), South Africa (Roberts et al 2010), andSwitzerland (Shiefraw et al 2010). Elsewhere, other weapons are more likely to be used, which is expected given the culture and Broutine activities^of these places (Hilal et al 2014).…”

Gender differences in combined homicide‐suicide with consideration of female terrorist bombers

“…In the United States over 90% of actors are males (Allen, ; Berman, ; Campanelli & Gilson, ; Currens et al, ; Felthous et al, ; Fishbain & Aldrich, ; Fishbain, D'Achille, Barsky, & Aldrich, ; Milroy, ; Palmer & Humphrey, ; Rosenbaum, ; Selkin, ; West, ; Wolfgang, ). The predominance of male killers in H‐S is universal, as manifested by studies in England, Canada (Brennan & Boyce, ), New Zealand (Moskowitz, Simpson, McKenna, Skipworth, & Barry‐Walsh, ), Turkey (Dogan, Demirci, Gunaydin, & Buken, ) and South Africa (Roberts, Wassenaar, Canetto, & Pillay, ). In several studies, nearly all the actors were males (Centers for Disease Control, ; Currens et al, ; Palmer & Humphrey, ).…”