Suicidal and Homicidal Risk for Respondents, Petitioners, and Family Members in an Injunction Program for Domestic Violence

From 1988 to 1991, 1,186 petitions for protection were filed in central Florida. A review of the coroner’s records yielded four documented suicides by respondents. All were males, with a mean age of 48.5 years. An average of 60.2 days passed from the the date of the last petition to date of death. During the same period, two petitioners & two children of petitioners were homicide victims. (3 refs.)