Men, Masculinities, and Murder-Suicide

Abstract

Murder-suicide (M-S) is a complex phenomenon that can involve a multifaceted set of interrelated biological and social factors. M-S is also sexed and gendered in that the perpetrators are most often male and their underpinning motives and actions link to masculinities in an array of diverse ways. With the overarching goal to describe connections between men, masculinities, and M-S, 296 newspaper articles describing 45 North American M-S cases were analyzed. The inductively derived findings revealed three themes: (a) domestic desperation, (b) workplace justice, and (c) school retaliation. Cases in the domestic desperation theme were characterized by the murder of a family member(s) and were often underpinned by men’s self-perceptions of failing to provide economic security. Workplace justice cases emerged from men’s grievances around paid-work, job insecurity, and perceptions of being bullied and/or marginalized by coworkers or supervisors. The school retaliation cases were strongly linked to “pay back” against individuals and/or society for the hardships endured by M-S perpetrators. Prevailing across the three themes was men’s loss of control in their lives, hopelessness, and marginalized masculine identities. Also evident were men’s alignments to hegemonic masculinities in reasserting one’s masculine self by protesting the perceived marginalization invoked on them. Overall, the findings give pause to consider the need for men-centered M-S prevention strategies to quell the catastrophic impacts of this long-standing but understudied men’s health issue.

Murder–Suicides Perpetrated by Adolescents: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System

“…This study highlighted men’s use of violence when they perceived a loss of control or hopelessness in their lives or perceived threats to their masculine identities (Oliffe et al, ). The themes identified from Oliffe et al () parallel the perversion of the virtue of justice, as described by Joiner (), which was the most common type of genuine murder–suicide that was identified in this study.…”

“…Prior research has compared murdersuicide to homicide only and to suicide only, but murder-suicide is a distinct event that should be examined separately since it has characteristics that distinguish it from both homicide and suicide (Joiner, 2014;Panczak et al, 2013;Podlogar et al, 2018). Joiner (2014) asserts that murder-suicide is characterized by suicide as a primary motivation that leads to a "perversion of virtue," which occasions the perception that it is necessary, just, or merciful to murder another person before enacting a predetermined suicidal plan (p. 5).…”

Current trends in the study of gender norms and health behaviors

“…Research on injuries tended to focus solely on gender differences with the exception of research on suicide which has a well-developed body of literature on the role that masculinity plays in suicide. Several recent articles argue that suicide rates among men are persistently higher than among women due to the difficulty they face attaining traditional masculine norms, including personal autonomy and socio-economic security [50–52]. Further, researchers suggest that adhering to certain masculine norms that discourage help-seeking when emotionally distressed further encourage suicidal behaviors among men [53, 54].…”

School shootings during 2013–2015 in the USA

“…Perpetrators were also male in such similar episodes in other parts of the world 1 32. Similar mass shooting episodes in the USA also shared the similar gender of the perpetrators 33. It is also important to note that such episodes nearly always led to multiple deaths and an even larger number of non-fatally injured victims.…”