Murder-Suicide in Australia

Homicide is a relatively infrequent event in Australia, and homicides followed by the suicide of the perpetrator occur about twenty times each year. Analyses of these cases, however, can be instructive. This Trends and Issues paper shows that most murder-suicides in Australia occur in the context of intimate and/or family relationships, and are more likely to involve firearms than are other categories of homicide. It suggests that policies designed to lessen the stresses occasioned by family dissolution, and to limit access to firearms by inappropriate persons may contribute to a reduction of murdersuicide, as well as to a reduction of the more common manifestations of violence in Australia.