Intimate partner violence: homicides followed by suicides in Kentucky

Homicides followed by suicides are rare yet devastating events. This study, for the first time, details the problem in Kentucky by linking coroner, medical examiner, vital statistics and administrative judicial data. In the three-year period 1998-2000, there were 492 firearm homicides in Kentucky, of which 32 (6.5%) were followed by a firearm suicide. All perpetrators who followed their homicide by killing themselves were males. Just or 9% of firearm homicides (46/492) were intimate partner-related but the majority of these (54%) were followed by a suicide. Although we found that only a small percentage of firearm homicides a followed by firearm suicide, when women were shot and killed by their intimate partners, the perpetrator shot himself in two thirds of cases. Continued research about violent deaths might provide a better understanding of homicides followed by suicides--critical for surveillance and prevention efforts.