The use of firearms in intimate murder-suicide in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Although murder-suicide is relatively rare, the number of events per year is fairly constant and often occurs in the context of intimate or family relations. These intimate or familial murder-suicides are, in most cases, perpetrated by males who kill their female partners and/or children and are often preceded by incidents of domestic violence. This paper proposes that murder-suicide can be positioned at the extreme end of a continuum of violence. Using data from Australia and New Zealand for a period of twenty years from 1973¬1992, the article explores the use of firearms to show how domestic violence can culminate in tragic death.