Intimate partner violence is a precursor to 6.1% of all suicides, according to a new study published in Social Science and Medicine – Population Health.
Most available research on intimate partner violence (IPV) and suicide focuses on homicide-suicides, which is when an individual kills another person before taking their own life. This study broadened our understanding by including information about the role of IPV in single suicides, which is when a suicide is not connected to other violent deaths. Single suicides are the most common type of fatal violence in the US.
The authors examined 2010-2017 data from the North Carolina Violent Death Reporting System (NC-VDRS). NC-VDRS includes text narratives about the circumstances known about each violent death that occurs in the state, such as mental health challenges or past suicide attempts, using information compiled from the coroner or medical examiner, law enforcement, and death certificate records. The study authors coded and qualitatively reviewed a sample of death narratives for single suicides to explore how often IPV was mentioned as a key circumstance leading up to the death.
Findings suggest that IPV may be a precipitating factor for 6.1% of all suicides in North Carolina (including both homicide-suicides and single suicides). If this finding is generalized nationally, it would suggest that there may be over 2,900 IPV-related suicides per year in the US, a number comparable to the total number of intimate partner homicides per year in the US.
When exploring IPV-related single suicide specifically, study authors found that the majority (81%) occurred among males, and most (73%) of these men had recently perpetrated nonfatal IPV. For IPV-related single suicides, physical violence was the most common type of IPV recorded in the death narratives, followed by emotional abuse.
This study highlights some important opportunities for integrated IPV and suicide prevention. The lead author, Julie Kafka, explained that “In practice, we often ignore the potential for a suicidal IPV perpetrator to authentically be suicidal. We simply assume that any reported IPV perpetrator suicide threats signal that they are homicidal (i.e., likely to commit homicide-suicide). We need to keep asking about IPV perpetrator suicide threats to inform victim safety planning. But we also have the opportunity to refer IPV perpetrators to mental health treatment or supports to address suicidality, which is simply not happening right now.” Additionally, more trauma-informed approaches to batterer’s intervention programs that incorporate suicide prevention elements could help strengthen effectiveness of these programs while providing much needed suicide prevention services.
The lead author also commented, “We were really surprised to see how many suicides were connected to IPV. Our study was pretty conservative in our approach, so the total contribution of IPV to suicide is probably much higher.” Kafka also pointed to some additional key takeaways from this study: “It’s interesting because previous IPV research has focused only on suicidal thoughts and behaviors among female IPV victims, or on homicide-suicide. Our study shows that a large group is being left out of the conversation; many male IPV perpetrators die by suicide (without committing homicide). Shifting our focus to consider this overlooked group could help us find new ways to effectively prevent both interpersonal and self-directed violence, which is really exciting.”
Study authors include Julie Kafka, an Injury and Violence Prevention (IVP) Fellow at UNC Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC), Dr. Beth Moracco, Associate Director of IPRC, Caroline Taheri, a Master of Public Health student from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Health Behavior, Belinda-Rose Young, Associate Director of Research & Translation and IVP Fellow at IPRC, Laurie Graham, Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, Rebecca Macy, IPRC core faculty and Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development at UNC School of Social Work, and Scott Proescholdbell, Injury Epidemiologist at the NC DHHS Injury and Violence Prevention Branch.
Read the full article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827322000581