Unusual suicide in Italy: criminological and medico-legal observations-a proposed definition of "atypical suicide" suitable for international application

Abstract

This work is the result of a kind of categorization of suicidal conduct based on an empirical-phenomenological approach, with integrated assessment of certain criteria, such as the dynamics, correlation of types of injury and how they were produced, evidence gathered during official inspections in loco, and case history findings about "suicide." This categorization is an attempt to provide a nosographic definition of atypical suicide, that is, cases in which the parameters of "typical" suicide are missing. Case studies are described, taken from a systematic exploration mainly of the Italian specialized literature of the 20th century, supplemented by earlier references when deemed significant. In-depth analysis of atypical suicide can supply additional interpretations of the problem of differential diagnosis of suicide, homicide, and accidental death, that is, the real punctum dolens in overall medico-legal determination of the cause of death in scenarios in which death cannot be definitely traced to a deliberate act.

Keywords: atypical suicide; crime scene; forensic science; guidelines; medico-legal investigations; psychological autopsy; typical suicide.