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Although homicide-suicide (H-S) offences are rare, they have remarkably tragic consequences. The purposes of this paper are to: examine the background characteristics of H-S offenders (including previous offending history and psychiatric elements); describe the crime-scene behavior and examine the motivational aspects of the offences; and to establish the reliability in the outlined typologies.

The study consists of case series of all H-S offenders in Sweden, January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2009 (n=13), and data was collected from medico-legal autopsy reports, police investigations and three national databases.

Of all Swedish homicides, 5.5 percent consisted of H-S cases, and the rate of H-S was 0.05 per 100,000 inhabitants. Seven of the offenders had had previous contact with a psychiatric service, however, the average time between the last contact and the offence was slightly more than four years. Three of the offenders had previously been convicted of a violent crime and nine of the 13 offenders were involved in serious marital conflicts during the time of the offence. In conclusion, the study supports the notion that cases of H-S are mainly associated with intimate partner homicides, rather than suicide or other homicides. However, the offences were not always directly aimed toward the (former) spouse, but instead carried out through a proxy (such as a common child).

The study adds in-depth knowledge by using a qualitative approach in an otherwise scarce area of research.

Homicidal behaviour is influenced by a complex interaction of behavioural, situational and environmental factors that raise many challenging psychological questions. A large and continually growing body of research has explored the crime of homicide, its epidemiology, victims and perpetrators. The area is developing rapidly, opening up new avenues of study. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This special issue of the Journal of Criminal Psychology brings together an exciting array of papers on homicidal behaviour, examining a wide range of issues including juvenile homicide perpetrators, school shootings, child homicide, homicide-suicide and differences in offence behaviours and victim characteristics between hard-to-solve one-off homicides and serial homicides.

The range of papers included in this special edition cover a wide range of aspects of homicidal behaviour, reflecting the importance of – and the need for – applied research moving away from examining general homicide to specialised research focusing on subtypes of homicide and subgroups of homicide offenders. A research agenda is proposed.

This editorial gives an introduction to the themes explored in this special issue and provides an overview of the selected papers.