U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Alcohol Ingestion and Age of Death in Hanging Suicides

NCJ Number
235789
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 56 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2011 Pages: 922-924
Author(s)
Rexson Tse, M.B.B.S.; Noel Sims; Roger W. Byard, M.D.
Date Published
July 2011
Length
3 pages
Annotation
A retrospective review of 100 consecutive, nondecomposed cases of suicide because of hanging was conducted at Forensic Science SA, Adelaide, Australia.
Abstract
Alcohol was detected in 38 cases (38 percent). The percentage of victims who had ingested alcohol significantly decreased with age (r2 = 0.81), with alcohol detected in 57.1 percent of those aged less than or equal to 24 years, compared to 28.5 percent of those aged between 55 and 64 years, and 0.0 percent of those aged less than or equal to 65 years. A similar linear relationship between alcohol ingestion and age was found for cases with blood alcohol levels greater than 0.05 g/100 mL (r2 = 0.73). The mean ages of those with detectable alcohol (35.2 years) levels greater than 0.05 g/100 mL (35.1 years) and levels greater than 0.1 g/100 mL (37.2 years) were all significantly less than in those with no detectable alcohol (44.4 years) (p less than 0.005, less than 0.005, less than 0.05 respectively). A clear relationship between alcohol ingestion and younger age was shown in hanging suicides. (Published Abstract)