UNASSIGNED: Psychosis increases the risk of committing homicide, but it remains unclear whether it also affects victim selection. Individual cases of stranger homicide elicit a lot of public attention and outrage, even though evidence of their incidence is scarce.
UNASSIGNED: Forensic psychiatric reports of 389 patients who had committed homicide in Finland during 1980-2014 were examined to determine the relationship between the offender and the victim. The stranger homicide incidence derived from perpetrators with psychosis was compared to a comparative incidence derived from a group of perpetrators without psychosis (other mental disorders were not excluded) over the time frame 2003-2014. Stranger homicide incidence rates were calculated using Finnish population averages of the study years, assuming a Poisson distribution and reported as per 100 000 person-years among potential victims in the Finnish general population.
UNASSIGNED: Three hundred and eighty nine patients with psychosis had committed 414 homicides, with 40 complete stranger victims and 15 victims known for less than 24 h. Complete stranger homicide incidence committed by individuals with psychosis was 0.022 per 100 000 person-years and 0.13 for individuals without psychosis. When also including victims known for < 24 h, the incidence was 0.031 for individuals with psychosis and 0.28 for individuals without psychosis per 100 000 person-years.
UNASSIGNED: Nine out of ten stranger homicides are committed by individuals without psychosis. However, on the basis of a 3.1% prevalence of psychotic disorders in Finland, individuals with psychosis have about a 3- to 5-fold risk of committing stranger homicides as compared to individuals without psychosis.

BACKGROUND: Homicide is the leading cause of death among young people in Latin America, one of the world\'s most violent regions. Poverty is widely considered a key cause of violence, but theories suggest different effects of poverty, depending on when it is experienced in the life-course. Longitudinal studies of violence are scarce in Latin America, and very few prospective data are available worldwide to test different life-course influences on homicide.
METHODS: In a prospective birth cohort study following 5914 children born in southern Brazil, we examined the role of poverty at birth, in early childhood, and in early adulthood on violence and homicide perpetration, in criminal records up to age 30 years. A novel Structured Life Course Modelling Approach was used to test competing life-course hypotheses about \'sensitive periods\', \'accumulation of risk\', and \'downward mobility\' regarding the influence of poverty on violence and homicide.
RESULTS: Cumulative poverty and poverty in early adulthood were the most important influences on violence and homicide perpetration. This supports the hypothesis that early adulthood is a sensitive period for the influence of poverty on lethal and non-lethal violence. Results were replicable using different definitions of poverty and an alternative outcome of self-reported fights.
CONCLUSIONS: Cumulative poverty from childhood to adulthood was an important driver of violence and homicide in this population. However, poverty experienced in early adulthood was especially influential, suggesting the importance of proximal mechanisms for violence in this context, such as unemployment, organized crime, drug trafficking, and ineffective policing and justice systems.

While the killing of one\'s own infant is an undoubtedly harrowing crime, there exists little research exploring attitudes toward these individuals. Such work has focused primarily on depictions of mothers, yet U.K. government data indicate that the majority of infant homicide cases involve paternal suspects. A sample of U.K. residents (n = 245) participated in a mixed-methods design to explore attitudes toward mothers and fathers who have been accused of murdering their infant child and whether parental mental health issues impacted these judgements. Results aligned with the chivalry hypothesis wherein maternal suspects were evaluated more leniently. Qualitative analyses uncovered hidden gender expectations: mothers were ascribed blame when the father was accused of infant homicide, a finding that was not present in the reverse scenario. This suggests that traditional views of motherhood conflict with a shifting social landscape that is seeing an increase in stay-at-home fathers and working mothers.

BACKGROUND: Filicide, the act of a parent or parental figure killing their child, has been reported in various African countries. However, there is a lack of comprehensive reviews on the prevalence and associated factors of filicide across the African continent, which is characterized by diverse cultural beliefs and practices. This review aims to examine the prevalence and risk factors of filicide in Africa.
METHODS: This review included studies on filicide in Africa, identified through searches in various databases (PubMed, Scopus, Africa Journal Online, and Google Scholar) using relevant keywords. The Mendeley reference manager was used to organize all identified articles and remove duplicate entries. A two-round screening process was conducted by two independent reviewers, with the final set of articles selected through mutual agreement. The quality of the studies was then assessed.
RESULTS: Out of the 107 retrieved articles, only 15 were included in the review. These studies revealed diverse prevalence rates: 3.7% of total homicides, 1.38% of deaths from family violence, and 13.02% for autopsied children. Various potential risk factors for filicide were identified, including unwanted pregnancies, marital conflicts, family disputes and violence, low socio-economic status, mental health issues in perpetrators, and mental, physical, or neurological vulnerabilities in victims. Cultural beliefs were also recognized as contributing factors to filicide.
CONCLUSIONS: Filicide is a complex and multi-dimensional issue influenced by various individual, familial, and societal factors. The review highlighted a high prevalence of filicide in Africa, shaped by these diverse factors.

BACKGROUND: Annual global data on mental disorders prevalence and firearm death rates for 2000-2019, enables the U.S. to be compared with comparable counties for these metrics.
METHODS: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Global Health Burden data were used to compare the prevalence of mental disorders with overall, homicide and suicide firearm death rates including homicides and suicides, in high sociodemographic (SDI) countries.
RESULTS: Overall and in none of the nine major categories of mental disorders did the U.S. have a statistically-significant higher rate than any of 40 other high SDI countries during 2019, the last year of available data. During the same year, the U.S. had a statistically-significant higher rate of all deaths, homicides, and suicides by firearm (all p<<0.001) than all other 40 high SDI countries. Suicides accounted for most of the firearm death rate differences between the U.S. and other high SDI countries, and yet the prevalence of mental health disorders associated with suicide were not significantly difference between the U.S. and other high SDI countries.
CONCLUSIONS: Mental disorder prevalence in the U.S. is similar in all major categories to its 40 comparable sociodemographic countries, including mental health disorders primarily associated with suicide. It cannot therefore explain the country\'s strikingly higher firearm death rate, including suicide. Reducing firearm prevalence, which is correlated with the country\'s firearm death rate, is a logical solution that has been applied by other countries.

UNASSIGNED: A loophole in US gun policy is that people can purchase guns from private sellers without going through any background check. Some states have addressed this loophole by requiring universal background checks for all gun sales, either at the point of sale or through a permit system; however, most studies on the effectiveness of universal background checks have not analyzed these 2 policy mechanisms separately.
UNASSIGNED: To assess the association of point-of-sale background check law and gun permit law, separately, with firearm homicide rates from 1976 through 2022 using the same methods and model specification.
UNASSIGNED: This cross-sectional study used a difference-in-differences, fixed-effects regression model to evaluate firearm laws and firearm homicide rates in 48 states from 1976 through 2022. Data were obtained for 48 states except New Hampshire and Vermont and were analyzed in January 2024.
UNASSIGNED: Implementation of either the law requiring a universal background check at point of sale for all firearms without a permit or the laws combining universal background checks and a state permit requirement for all gun purchasers.
UNASSIGNED: Annual, state-specific rates of firearm homicide per 100 000 people.
UNASSIGNED: From 1976 through 2022, 12 states adopted the universal background check laws without permitting requirements and 7 states implemented gun permit laws covering all firearms. The mean (SD) firearm homicide rate was 4.3 (0.1) per 100 000 people. Universal background checks for all firearms alone (without a state permitting system) were not associated with overall homicide rates (percentage change, 1.3%; 95% CI, -6.9% to 10.4%) or firearm homicide rates (percentage change, 3.7%; 95% CI, -5.3% to 13.6%). A law requiring a permit for the purchase of all firearms was associated with significantly lower overall homicide rates (percentage change, -15.4%; 95% CI, -28.5% to -0.01%) and firearm homicide rates (percentage change, -18.3%; 95% CI, -32.0% to -1.9%).
UNASSIGNED: This cross-sectional study found that universal background checks alone were not associated with firearm homicide rates, but a permit requirement for the purchase and possession of firearms was associated with substantially reduced rates of firearm homicide. The findings suggest that combining universal background checks and permit-to-purchase requirements is an effective strategy for firearm-related fatality reduction.

BACKGROUND: Firearm homicide and opioid overdoses were already leading causes of death in the U.S. before both problems surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Firearm violence, overdoses, and COVID-19 have all disproportionately harmed communities that are socially and economically marginalized, but the co-occurrence of these problems in the same communities has received little attention. To describe the co-occurrence of firearm homicides and opioid overdose deaths with COVID-19 mortality we used 2017-2021 medical examiner\'s data from Chicago, IL. Deaths were assigned to zip codes based on decedents\' residence. We stratified zip codes into quartiles by COVID-19 mortality rate, then compared firearm homicide and fatal opioid overdose rates by COVID-19 quartile.
RESULTS: Throughout the study period, firearm homicide and opioid overdose rates were highest in the highest COVID-19 mortality quartile and lowest in the lowest COVID-19 mortality quartile. Increases in firearm homicide and opioid overdose were observed across all COVID-19 mortality quartiles.
CONCLUSIONS: High co-occurrence of these deaths at the community level call for addressing the systemic forces which made them most vulnerable before the pandemic. Such strategies should consider the environments where people reside, not only where fatal injuries occur.

UNASSIGNED: Despite high social and public health costs of firearm violence in the United States, the effects of many policies designed to reduce firearm mortality remain uncertain.
UNASSIGNED: To estimate the individual and joint effect sizes of state firearm policies on firearm-related mortality.
UNASSIGNED: In this comparative effectiveness study, bayesian methods were used to model panel data of annual, state-level mortality rates (1979-2019) for all US firearm decedents, with analyses conducted in October 2023.
UNASSIGNED: Six classes of firearms policies: background checks, minimum age, waiting periods, child access, concealed carry, and stand-your-ground laws.
UNASSIGNED: Primary outcomes (total firearm deaths, firearm homicide deaths, and firearm suicide deaths) were assessed using the National Vital Statistics System. Bayesian estimation was used to estimate the partial association of changes in firearms policies with subsequent changes in firearm mortality.
UNASSIGNED: The estimated effect sizes of individual policies 5 or more years after implementation were generally small in magnitude and had considerable uncertainty. The policy class with the highest probability of reducing firearm deaths was child-access prevention laws, estimated to reduce overall firearm mortality by 6% (80% credible interval [CrI], -2% to -9%). The policy class with the highest probability of increasing firearm deaths was stand-your-ground laws, estimated to increase firearm homicides by 6% (80% CrI, 0% to 13% increase). Estimates of association of implementing multiple firearm restrictions with subsequent changes in firearm mortality yielded larger effect sizes. Moving from the most permissive to most restrictive set of firearm policies was associated with an estimated 20% reduction in firearm deaths (80% CrI, 10% to 28% reduction), with a 0.99 probability of any reductions in firearm death rates.
UNASSIGNED: In this comparative effectiveness study of state firearm policies, the joint effect estimates of combinations of firearm laws were calculated, showing that restrictive firearm policies were associated with substantial reductions in firearm mortality. Although policymakers would benefit from knowing the effects of individual policies, the estimated changes in firearm mortality following implementation of individual policies were often small and uncertain.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate mortality and years of life lost (YLL) due to suicide and homicide in children aged 10-19 years in southern Iran from 2004 to 2019. Study Design: A cross-sectional study.
METHODS: The data on all deaths due to suicide and homicide in Fars province were obtained from the population-based electronic death registration system (EDRS). Crude mortality rate and YLL were calculated. The joinpoint regression method was used to examine the trend.
RESULTS: During the study period, 563 cases of suicide and 218 cases of homicide in children aged 10-19 have occurred. The total number of YLL due to suicide was 9766 in men and 6261 in women. According to the joinpoint regression analysis, the trend of YLL due to suicide was increasing in males. In other words, the annual percent change (APC) was 4.8% (95% CI 0.4 to 9.5, P=0.036). Additionally, there was a constant trend in females, and APC was 2.7% (95% CI -2.0 to 7.7, P=0.241). The number of YLL due to homicide was 4890 in males and 1294 in females. The trend of YLL due to homicide was stable in males and females. In other words, APC was -1.6% (95% CI -5.6 to -2.6, P=0.422) in males and -2.7% (95% CI -10.0 to 5.2, P=0.467) in females.
CONCLUSIONS: Based on the findings of this study, the trend of mortality rate and YLL due to suicide in men has been increasing and it has been stable in women. Moreover, the trend of mortality due to homicide was stable for both males and females. Therefore, it is necessary to take preventive actions.

Despite domestic violence and related homicides perpetrated by partners and/or in-laws being a significant public health problem in India, there are no reliable and valid instruments to identify and intervene with women in domestic violence relationships. Continued domestic violence can escalate to severe, near-lethal, or lethal violence or homicide. The Danger Assessment (DA) is a risk assessment instrument designed to assess the likelihood of severe, near-lethal, or lethal violence in abusive relationships. However, the DA is not designed to determine the risk of future severe, near-lethal, or lethal violence by in-laws. In-law abuse plays a significant role in domestic violence-related homicides in India and other countries with similar cultural norms. This study addressed this gap by developing the Danger Assessment for in-laws (DA-L) to assess risk from in-laws, alongside the Danger Assessment for Women in India (DA-WI) to assess risk from partners. The study also examined the psychometric properties of the DA-L and DA-WI. Longitudinal data from 150 women in India were used to measure the reliability and validity of the two versions of the DA. The original DA items and additional risk items were examined using relative risk ratios for their relationship with severe violence at three-month follow-ups. Predictive validity was tested with the receiver operating characteristic curve. The study resulted in reliable and valid measures (11 items DA-L and 26-items DA-WI) of risk. The versions of the DA can be useful for practitioners in India and those working with Indian women in the US and other countries. The DAs can be used for identifying women in domestic violence relationships who are at risk for future severe domestic violence and guide the provision of tailored safety plans.