Victim-involved murder or "blue suicide" (a review of international research)

“Suicide by cop” (SbC) is a rare and unusual method of intentional suicide by provoking murder (using a firearm). The aim is to summarize current data on SbC, primarily based on foreign literature. Scientific interest in SbC emerged in the 1980s and 1990s and was primarily covered in English-language literature. SbC incidence ranges from 10.0 to 76.0%, and its frequency greatly depends on the incident characteristics (higher in cases involving potential life threat to police officers and hostage-taking). SbC is committed by men in 83.0-98.0% of cases, primarily by young people (mean age 35.0-38.0 years of age), Caucasians with various manifestations of suicidal behavior (26.0-66.2%) and mental disorders (25.5-67.0%), typically in a state of intoxication (17.3-94.7%). From 1.0 to 85.3% of the initiators of the incidents were killed, 3.0-67.0% were injured, and up to 8.3% committed suicide themselves. The causes of the incidents vary significantly, most often these are manifold stressful situations (conflicts), as well as problems related to family, work (employment), housing (availability, loss of housing), finances, committing crimes and punishment for illegal activity. In American feature films, SbC occur 10 times more often than in real life (1.28% versus 0.12% among US population). In Russia, there is no statistical data on the incidents, the number of publications are extremely limited, but in recent years, reports on such cases started to emerge in regional electronic media. Keeping records on the SbC incidents by a trained team of law enforcement officers and specialists in various fields can significantly reduce fatal outcomes (injuries and trauma) among participants in such incidents.