The practice of investigating incitement to suicide

The article analyzes the methodology for investigating incitement to suicide. The standard conditions of the procedural check and the initial stage of the investigation are given, characterized by the presence of information about the causes of suicide and the absence thereof. Using the example of criminal cases, the circumstances of the behavior of criminals and victims when driven to suicide are examined. The applied investigative practice of refuting the version of incitement to suicide is described as a basis for refusing to initiate a criminal case. Investigative actions to establish and prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the impact on the victim and his decision to commit suicide are analyzed. The role of post-mortem psychological and psychiatric examination is highlighted as a fundamental way of obtaining evidence of the presence or absence of a cause-and-effect relationship. Based on a synthesis of methods typical for investigative practice to induce suicide, the author substantiates the need for mandatory establishment of the cause of suicide even in cases of its non-criminal nature. Recommendations are given for conducting investigative actions aimed at establishing the facts of the criminal’s knowledge of the victim’s previous suicide attempts, distinguishing the motivating reasons for suicide in multiple cases, and mandatory evidentiary confirmation of the perpetrator’s intent. The author proposes to check possible previous suicide attempts, starting from adolescence, thus establishing the negative circumstances that form a person’s intention to commit suicide, with a subsequent conclusion about the predisposition of the deceased to commit suicide. A recommendation is given for an expert assessment of the mental state of the deceased, providing for the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship between the negative impact on the individual and the formation of a painful mental state in him, leading directly to suicide itself. The necessity is substantiated not only of stating the indirect intent of the perpetrator, but also of the mandatory receipt of supporting evidence. As such, it is proposed to consider the commission of illegal actions by the perpetrator upon awareness of the victim’s predisposition to suicide and (or) the victim’s report of committing suicide if illegal actions continue to be committed against him.