Witness to Suicide: Using CalEVDRS Data to track public suicides in Los Angeles County in 2010

Introduction

One aspect of suicidal behavior frequently overlooked is that of victims who died by suicide in the presence of another person, regardless of injury mechanism.  We use Los Angeles County (LAC) data entered into the California Electronic Violent Death Reporting System (CalEVDRS) to examine characteristics and precipitating circumstances of suicide victims whose self-inflicted injury was witnessed and resulted in death.

Methods

LAC staff abstracting data into CalEVDRS identified witnessed suicide cases within the narrative of each record.  These cases were then examined to determine the demographics of the victims, the relationship between the victim and the witness(es), and additional circumstances surrounding each death. 

Results

While data entry for 2010 is not yet complete, records have been entered for 511 suicides.  Of these, 19 (4%) were identified as witnessed suicides.  In more than half the cases, the witness(es) did not know the victim.  79% of victims were male, similar to non-witnessed suicides.  Almost all witnessed suicides were White (48%) or Hispanic  (48%), while just 25% of non-witnessed suicides were Hispanic.  While just one witnessed suicide case left a suicide note or reported a history of physical health problem (5%), among non-witnessed cases, over one third left a suicide note and one quarter reported a physical health problem.

Conclusions

Studying these deaths could lend assistance to understanding the impact a witness can have on a suicide.  While witnessed suicides make up only a small portion of all suicides, further information may prove helpful in driving new and/or refining existing prevention efforts.