Military Versus Civilian Murder-Suicide

Abstract

Previous studies have implicated significant differences between military members and civilians with regard to violent behavior, including suicide, domestic violence, and harm to others, but none have examined military murder-suicide. This study sought to determine whether there were meaningful differences between military and civilian murder-suicide perpetrators. Using data from the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), military ( n = 259) and civilian ( n = 259) murder-suicide perpetrators were compared on a number of demographic, psychological, and contextual factors using chi-square analyses. Logistic regression was used to determine which variables predicted membership to the military or civilian perpetrator groups. Military murder-suicide perpetrators were more likely to be older, have physical health problems, be currently or formerly married, less likely to abuse substances, and to exhibit significantly different motives than civilian perpetrators. Logistic regression revealed that membership to the military, rather than the civilian, perpetrator group was predicted by age, physical health problems, and declining heath motive-reflecting the significance of a more than 15-year difference in mean age between the two groups. Findings point to the need to tailor suicide risk assessments to include questions specific to murder-suicide, to assess attitudes toward murder-suicide, and to the importance of assessing suicide and violence risk in older adult military populations.

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

“…These consequences include far‐reaching social and emotional impacts for those who survive the death of loved ones, as well as substantial logistical and financial burdens associated with complex investigations and postvention that follow after a murder–suicide incident (Joiner, ). Nascent scholarship has evaluated characteristics of murder–suicide perpetrators and victims across several contexts, including comparisons of military and civilian perpetrators (Patton, McNally, & Fremouw, ), in adults of different ages (Eliason, ), and within the context of intimate partnerships (Malphurs & Cohen, ; Salari & Sillito, ). However, murder–suicide perpetrated by adolescents has not been widely addressed in the literature and may offer insight into the nature of murder–suicide across different developmental contexts.…”

“…To expand on previous efforts to categorize murder–suicide using descriptive typologies (e.g., Marzuk et al, ), it is necessary to consider theoretically derived explanations of murder–suicide that can account for patterns of behavior across diverse cases and that involve different types of perpetrators. Previous research on murder–suicide has called for the application of Joiner’s typology (Patton et al, ), which may promote a clearer understanding of murder–suicide as either a subtype of murder or suicide in particular cases.…”

Mixed Methods Secondary Analysis of Older Adult Homicide-Suicides from National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) Data

“…Although none has focused solely on intimate partner incidents among older adults, authors of several NVDRS-informed research reports on homicide followed by suicide identified the proportion of intimate partner incidents and provided age group comparisons. Bossarte et al (2006) and Liem et al (2011) based their reports on categorical and quantitative records provided in NVDRS data, while Patton et al (2017), Logan et al (2019), Schwab-Reese et al (2021 and Jordan and MacNeil (2021) supplemented quantitative data with information extracted from unstructured case narratives included in NVDRS restricted access data. The report by Logan et al was the only identified source using NVDRS data to focus solely on intimate partner homicide followed by suicide.…”

“…Logan et al (2019) used a subsample identified through application of previously described selection criteria. Patton et al (2017) selected a random sample of 259 cases to serve as a comparison group for their cases of interest which were 259 identified cases involving a perpetrator who was an active or formerly active member of the U.S. military. Due to differences in data availability and author selection criteria, the number of homicidesuicide incidents analyzed differed across studies, ranging from 209 (Bossarte et al, 2006) to 2,447 (Jordan & MacNeil, 2021).…”

“…The proportion of intimate partner homicide-suicide incidents included in a given study, compared to all homicide-suicide incidents, ranged from 58% (Bossarte et al, 2006) to 74.5% (Jordan & MacNeil, 2021). When authors stratified cases using additional criteria, the proportions were at times higher: for example, the proportion of military perpetrator intimate partner homicide followed by suicide was 78.4% of all military homicides followed by suicide (203 of 259) (Patton et al, 2017) When authors provided information regarding sex, male perpetrators and female victims featured in more than 90% of intimate partner homicide-suicide incidents (Bossarte et al, 2006;Joshua & MacNeil, 2021;Liem et al, 2011;Logan et al, 2019;Patton et al, 2017;Schwab-Reese et al, 2021). When manner of death was provided, firearms were used in more than 80% of cases (Bossarte et al, 2006;Joshua & MacNeil, 2021;Liem et al, 2011;Logan et al, 2019;Patton et al, 2017).…”