Study Reveals Silent Rise In Homicide And Suicide Cases In The US

A study analyzed homicide-suicide cases in 30 US states between 2016 and 2022. These events, while rare, were more frequent than previously thought, with approximately 820 deaths per year. Most cases involved men, firearms, and intimate partners as victims. Rates varied significantly across states, and researchers emphasize the importance of policies to prevent domestic violence and limit access to guns for those at risk.

Homicide-suicide is a type of tragedy in which a person takes the life of one or more people and then immediately commits suicide. Although it is a relatively rare type of violence in the United States, previous research indicated a stable average of 0.2 to 0.3 cases per 100,000 people, data that, until then, only went back to 2004.

Because homicide and suicide rates have been changing over time, this new study aimed to update this information by analyzing the frequency, characteristics, and patterns of these types of occurrences in 30 U.S. states between 2016 and 2022.

To better understand these events, the researchers used a national U.S. database called the National Violent Death Reporting System. This system collects detailed information on violent deaths, including homicides and suicides, based on police reports, forensic examinations, and other official sources. The study focused on 30 states that consistently provided data during the analyzed period.

The researchers defined "homicide-suicide" as any case in which one or more people were murdered and the perpetrator committed suicide within a 24-hour period. Each case was carefully analyzed individually: they separated the data from the perpetrator and all victims involved, seeking to identify patterns such as the weapon used, the relationship between the perpetrator and the victims, and demographic characteristics such as age, sex, and race.

To calculate the rates, the researchers used official population data for each state, provided by the U.S. Census. They analyzed these rates over time, both by year and by quarter, and used a statistical method called "piecewise linear regression" to identify whether there was an increase, decrease, or stability in the numbers over the years.

The statistical analyses were performed using specialized data analysis programs such as SAS and R. The study followed strict ethical standards and was approved by an ethics committee at Columbia University.

Between 2016 and 2022, 5,743 homicide-suicide deaths were recorded in the 30 states analyzed. This corresponds to an average of 820 deaths per year. Of these cases, 3,125 were homicides and 2,618 were suicides.

The vast majority of suicides were men (over 91%), and the majority of homicide victims were also men (73%). The average annual homicide-suicide rate during this period was 0.45 per 100,000 people, a figure slightly higher than that recorded in previous studies.

The rates varied significantly from state to state: the states with the highest rates were Alaska and Arizona, while the lowest were Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Regarding the number of victims per event, most cases involved only one homicide victim (almost 86%), but there were instances with up to seven victims. Approximately 14% of homicide victims were children under 18.

The most common weapon used in these crimes was a firearm, present in almost 90% of the homicides and suicides analyzed. The most common type of victim was an intimate partner, that is, the perpetrator's current or former partner, representing more than half of the homicide victims.

US homicide and suicide rate per 100,000 people by quarter (Q), 2016-2022.

This study showed that, although homicide-suicide remains a rare phenomenon, it occurs more frequently than previously thought based on previous data. Rates remained stable over the seven years analyzed, but the numbers are still concerning.

Most cases involve intimate relationships, which reinforces the need for public policies aimed at preventing domestic violence, such as victim support programs and screenings to identify people at risk.

The fact that almost all cases involve firearms also highlights the importance of policies that control access to these weapons, such as protective orders against people who pose a risk of committing violence.

The difference in rates between states indicates that local solutions need to be adapted to the realities of each region, considering everything from gun laws to the availability of mental health services and protection against domestic violence.

It's worth noting that the study has some limitations: not all US states participated with complete data, so the results are not representative of the entire country. Furthermore, in some cases, detailed information about the context of the tragedy was lacking, which can make it difficult to fully understand each incident.

READ MORE:

The Epidemiology of Murder-Suicide in the US, 2016-2022

Katherine M. Keyes, Victoria A. Joseph, and Caroline Rutherford

JAMA Netw Open, July 29, 2025; 8; (7) : e2523698. 

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.23698

Abstract: 

Murder-suicide events occur when an individual commits 1 or more acts of homicide shortly before taking their own life.1,2 Incidence is low in the US population, with prior research indicating stable population rates of approximately 0.2 to 0.3 per 100 000,3 although incidence data were not included after 2004. Given dynamic trends in suicide and homicide, a more recent assessment of incidence, characteristics, and trends is important for informing areas for potential prevention and intervention for those at risk. The present study estimated murder-suicide rates and characteristics in 30 US states from 2016 through 2022. Data for this repeated cross-sectional time-series (2016-2022) were drawn from the National Violent Death Reporting System Restricted Access Database,4 including 30 states that contributed data consistently (eMethods in Supplement 1). Briefly, events were based on police reports and other information regarding whether 1 or more homicides were followed by suspect suicide within a 24-hour time period. Data on each incident, including the suicide decedent and all linked homicides linked, were extracted for analysis. Rates were estimated with US Census Bureau total state population denominators. Piecewise linear regression was used to statistically evaluate time trends in murder-suicide rates by quarter and year.

Data were accessed through an approved data use agreement; analyses were approved by the Columbia University institutional review board. This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline for cross-sectional studies. Data were analyzed with SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc) and R version 4.2.1 (R Project for Statistical Computing). From 2016 through 2022 in the 30 states with complete reporting, 5743 deaths were involved in murder-suicide events (an average of 820 deaths per year), including 3125 homicide and 2618 suicide decedents (2398 male [91.6%]; 540 Black [20.6%], 1851 White [70.7%])