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Suicide by Cop: Committing Suicide by Provoking Police to Shoot You
Mark Lindsay and David Lester
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Death, Value and Meaning Series, John D. Morgan, Series Editor
You can read the
Introduction for free right now, just click here.
IN PRAISE OF
"Suicide by Cop provides many snapshots; not only the general of the profile,
but the unique in suicide by cop. Many of us in the field will find the book, in
fact, practically helpful. Not all incidents are the same. This book allows any
reader to know suicide by cop better (and that may be life-saving). One will know,
for example, what Crazy-Dog Wishing to Die is? The reader will not be disappointed
in the detail. It is the peculiar facts, not simply the "typical" profile, which we
also need to know for prevention. How can suicide by cop be prevented? I highly
recommend this book. Typically, a book is limited in audience; this book is, however,
for many of us, not only the cop.
. . . readers will not be disappointed."
—Antoon A. Leenaars, Ph.D., C.Psych., CPQ, Blue Line Magazine, August 2004
"Given the growing interest in encounters between law enforcement officers and persons
with mental disorders, Suicide by Cop is a useful reference. The book's casual,
unscientific style in many ways makes it more geared toward law enforcement than mental
health professionals. However, the book's contents provide some interesting perspectives
for anyone who is interested in the phenomenon of suicide by cop and of seeking suicide
by proxy."
—Debra Pinals, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, Worcester State Hospital,
Massachusetts, Psychiatric Services, Vol. 56, No. 11, 2005
ABOUT THE BOOK
The phenomenon of suicide by cop has increased in frequency in recent years,
creating great concern in the law enforcement community. In suicide by cop, an
individual behaves so as to provoke police officers into attempting to disarm him,
sometimes killing him in the process. For example, an individual may hold a gun and
advance toward police officers, refusing to stop or drop the weapon. It has proven
difficult but important to distinguish these acts from those in which there is no
justification for police officers’ killing an individual, and from those in which a person is
killed during a confrontation with police, but had no suicidal motivation. Criminal
penalties for the police officers involved and civil lawsuits by the relatives of the
deceased person depend critically on these distinctions.
This book examines what we know about the phenomenon of suicide by cop and
places this behavior in a broader context. For example, some murder victims (perhaps as
many as a quarter) provoke the murderer, to some extent, into killing them—so-called
victim-precipitated homicide. In some cases, it has been suspected that murderers kill and
act thereafter in such a way as to provoke the state into executing them. The authors then
examine some of the issues specific to suicide by cop, such as whether there is a racial
bias in these acts and what the legal implications are. Finally, they discuss the process of
hostage negotiation (since those involved in suicide by cop often take hostages during the
confrontation with police), the need to provide counseling for police officers involved in
suicide-by-cop incidents, and how we might reduce the incidence of this behavior.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Suicidologists and thanatologists in general, law enforcement personnel, and students
in any courses that deal with suicides of this type.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
David Lester has doctoral degrees in social and political science (Cambridge
University, UK) and psychology (Brandeis University, USA). He is Professor of
Psychology at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, and has been President of
the International Association for Suicide Prevention. He has written more than 70 books
and 2,000 scholarly articles and notes on suicide, murder, the fear of death, and other
aspects of thanatology.
Mark Lindsay was a police officer and detective in Baltimore, Maryland, for more
than 20 years. He has a B.S. in criminal justice and an M.S. in clinical psychology. He is
a licensed Psychological Associate in the State of Maryland and has worked extensively
in suicide investigations and hostage negotiations, and he has led training courses for law
enforcement personnel. He was Adjunct Professor in Applied Psychology at the
University of Baltimore.
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