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Influence of Coroners' Officers and Pathologists on Suicide Verdicts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Brian Barraclough ,
Trevor Holding  and
Peter Fayers
Brian Barraclough
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Clinical Psychiatry Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, Sussex PO19 4PQ
Trevor Holding
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
Peter Fayers
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases Unit, Brompton Hospital, Fulham Road, London SW3 6HP
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Summary

Three-hundred-and-thirty cases of unnatural death, leading to 110 open verdicts, 110 verdicts of suicide and 11o of accident, from the Inner West London Coroner's District have been examined to see if particular coroner's officers or pathologists were associated with disproportionate numbers of suicide verdicts. No significant deviations from the expected numbers were found. Coroner's officers probably share common ideas about the features defining suicide, and so do pathologists.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 128 , Issue 5 , May 1976 , pp. 471 - 474
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

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References

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Sainsbury, P. & Barraclough, B. (1968) Differences between suicide rates. Nature, 220, 1252.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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