Medicolegal evaluation of suicidal deaths exemplified by the situation in Germany

Abstract

Suicide is a significant form of unnatural death and must be differentiated as such from other violent manners of death (homicide, accident), but also from unexpected deaths due to natural causes. The distinction is made on the basis of a careful collection and correct interpretation of post-mortem forensic findings on the one hand, the general background of the case and the criminal investigation at the scene on the other. For competent assessment by the post-mortem medical examiner and/or forensic pathologist, a thorough knowledge of the numerous methods of committing suicide and their pathomorphological correlates is indispensable. This not only includes the constellation of findings and injury patterns typical of suicide, but also unusual manifestations. Highly conspicuous are complex suicides, in which several methods are applied simultaneously, or one after the other, as well as joint suicides and homicide-suicides involving several persons. Certain settings also deserve special attention. Moreover, simulated or dissimulated suicide is a possibility that must always be borne in mind in forensic practice.