Law Enforcement-Assisted Suicide: Characteristics of Subjects and law Enforcement Intervention Techniques (In: Suicide and Law Enforcement, edited by D C Sheehan & J I Warren)

This chapter describes historical, personality, behavioural, & situational factors of law enforcement-assisted suicides, which are also known as suicide-by-cop subjects. It also examines intervention tactics used by law enforcement officers during these incidents. Although suicide-by-cop shares several characteristics with other suicide attempts, it appears to be unique due to the involvement of other people. In addition, a large number of subjects had previous contact with officers usually through minor disturbances, so the subject was not an unknown assailant & the officer was not just a uniform. JA