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Planned and Unplanned Complex Suicides: A 5-Year Retrospective Study

NCJ Number
217667
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2007 Pages: 449-452
Author(s)
Stephanie Racette B.Sc.; Anny Sauvageau M.D.
Date Published
March 2007
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper presents the findings of a 5-year retrospective study of 19 complex suicides (defined by Marcinkowski as suicide by a combination of more than 1 method) that were analyzed for gender, age, suicide methods, the presence of a suicide note, and past suicide attempts; the findings were statistically compared with 50 cases of simple suicides and data from the suicide literature.
Abstract
Of all suicides reported over the 5-year study period, 2.1 percent were classified as complex. Although more than one suicide method was used in the complex cases by definition, the methods used were often those used in simple suicides. The frequency of a suicide note at the scene and reported past suicides in complex suicides were similar to the general picture of suicide in the literature. The one female victim in the sample of complex suicide cases was the first reported case of an unplanned complex suicide for a female. For the study sample, victims of planned complex suicide were significantly older than both simple suicide victims and victims of unplanned complex suicide. The authors question whether suicides that involve more than one type of firearm or more than one type of drug should be classified as complex rather than simple suicides. The autopsy cases reviewed for the 5-year study period were from the forensic laboratory of Quebec Province (Canada). Of the 893 suicide cases over this period, 19 were classified as complex (more than 1 suicide method was used). Of these, 14 were planned and 5 were unplanned. The statistical analysis of the characteristics of complex and simple suicides was conducted with the SPSS software, version 14.0. 4 tables and 21 references