Year: 1998 Source: Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no.82, (March 1998), p.1-6 SIEC No: 20011409

Homicides followed by the suicide of the perpetrator occur about 20 times each year in Australia. Analyses of these cases show most murder-suicides in Australia occur in the context of intimate &/or family relationships, & are more likely to involve firearms than are other categories of homicide. It suggests policies designed to lessen the stresses occasioned by family dissolution, & to limit access to firearms by inappropriate persons may contribute to a reduction of murder-suicide, as well as to a reduction of the more common manifestations of violence in Australia. (13 refs.)