Homicide-suicides are a rare yet very serious form of lethal violence which mainly occur in partnerships & families. The extent to which homicide-suicide can be undertood as being primarily a homicide or a suicide event, or rather a category of its own is examined. In total, 103 homicide-suicides were compared to 3,203 homicides & 17,751 suicides that happened in the Netherlands, 1992-2006. Logistic regression analyses show that homicide-suicides significantly differ from both homicides & suicides with regard to sociodemographic & event characteristics. The findings suggest homicide-suicide might be considered as a distinct phenomenon from both homicide & suicide. (52 refs.) JA