Analysis of suicide aggressors after mass murder

Mass murders (MM) usually include an act of aggression that is committed within a short time in one place and within the framework of one event and includes three or more victims. The readiness to die or commit suicide is a very common characteristic of such a criminal, so there is every reason to consider the features of MM including within the framework of murder-suicide (MMS). The aim of the study is to study the cases of MMS in the Russian Federation (RF) that occurred in 2002-2021 by comparing them with ordinary mass murders (OMM) and so-called post- homicidal suicides (HSU) with one or two victims. Materials and Methods. We analyzed 47 cases of MMS from 32 regions of the Russian Federation (44 men and 3 women, aged 16 to 70 years; mean age 39.9±13.9 years). The comparison groups included 67 cases of MM (63 and 4, 15-64 years of age; 34.3±10.4), but without suicides of the aggressors (OMM) from 41 regions of the Russian Federation and 348 HSU s from 69 regions of the Russian Federation (287 and 61, 15-86 years of age; 42 ,6±14.1). Mathematical and statistical processing was carried out using descriptive statistics, chi-distribution and t-test. Results. Almost every fourth MMS ended in the death of five or more people (on average - 3.94 victims), with OMM in 91% of cases there were less than five victims (3.48), HSU was limited to one victim in 72.1% (1.28). The analysis also showed that the MMS is usually family (domestic) murder (often of spouses and children) followed by suicide, associated with marital conflicts and committed, as a rule, in a generally dangerous way (firearms and explosions) with the largest number of victims. OMM is predominantly extra-family murder associated with conflicts involving strangers, committed by people of young and mature age, more often in a state of intoxication, using piercing objects, arson and several methods of aggression. HSU with one or two victims is more often marital or child murder associated with conflicts in the family, committed in other ways (suffocation, etc.). The aggressors of the HSU turned out to be the oldest, less likely to have a criminal record in the past. Most of them were women and people aged 60 and over. Conclusion. The selected groups - MMS, OMM and HSU differ significantly from each other in a number of socio-psychological (demographic) and criminological indicators.