Gender differences in combined homicide‐suicide with consideration of female terrorist bombers

• Published in: Behavioral sciences & the law Vol. 37; no. 5; pp. 614 - 631
• Main Authors: Felthous, Alan R., Samantarai, Sadhna, Mukhtar, Assad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.09.2019
• Subjects: Adult; Child; Criminals; Exceptions; Family; Female; Females; Gender aspects; Gender differences; Homicide; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infanticide; Interpersonal Relations; Intimacy; Male; Men; Military aircraft; Motivation; Murders & murder attempts; Perpetrators; Prevalence; Psychopathology; Sex Factors; Spouses; Suicide; Suicides & suicide attempts; Terrorism
• ISSN: 0735-3936; 1099-0798
• DOI: 10.1002/bsl.2433

Combined homicide‐suicide (H‐S) is a phenomenon described as an offender committing a homicidal act followed by their suicide. Current literature on H‐S is dominated by a focus on men and their particular set of motivations and actions, primarily because females constitute only a small fraction of the cases of completed H‐S. This review begins by analyzing this data and integrating females within two subclassifications of H‐S: the psychopathology of the actor (or perpetrator), and the actor's relationship to her homicide victims. Within the relational subcategory of H‐S, females are: (1) underrepresented when victims are their spouses or intimate partners (consortial H‐S); (2) more prevalent when victims are their own children (filial H‐S); and (3) with rare exceptions, not represented in extrafamilial, adversarial and pseudo‐commando H‐S perpetrators. This review includes female bombers in this gender comparison.