Genuine and simulated suicide notes: An analysis of content

Abstract

The present study examined genuine and simulated suicide notes aiming to identify the measures of content that best differentiate between the two. Thirty-three genuine and thirty-three simulated suicide notes were content-analysed and data subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), a Multidimensional Scaling Procedure. The core of all suicide notes was discovered to be constructed with the use of three variables: expressions of love, positive construction of partner and apologies. Furthermore, four different genuine suicide note themes ('planned escape', 'negative affect and self-mitigation', 'positive affect and failed relationship', 'lack of selfacceptance') and three simulated suicide note themes ('escape', 'positive affect and self-blame', 'purposeless life') were identified revealing that authentic suicide note themes were more internally consistent and clearer to interpret.Keywords: suicide; suicide notes; genuine suicide notes; simulated suicide notes; MDS analysis 2 Suicide note writing has an important social dimension [1]. Suicide notes are a window to the manner in which suicides construct themselves, others and their surrounding reality and consequently -to the reasons of death. This is reflected in a study [2] inquiring into the discursive self-presentation of suicidal individuals in online interactions. The researchers reveal how their subjects' ability to think prospectively is disturbed. Suicides may be motivated to leave a note in order to have their needs understood by others as suicide notes are always aimed at audience and hence they create a social act -they transport meanings and construct suicide's reality. As [3] report, suicide notes constitute a peculiar self-continuation and enable the deceased to exert some influence even after death. Even more, they hold the power to connect the writers to their close ones. It, therefore, seems important to study the content of suicide notes in order to understand suicidal individuals.

Crime location choices: A geographical analysis of German serial killers

“…One way to examine this further would be to look at any of the writings of the offenders to link into their offenders narratives. Emerging research has shown the utility of examining notes and or written contact to build both victim and offender profiles (Ioannou & Debowska, ; Synnott, Coulias, & Ioannou, ; Synnott, Ioannou, Coyne, & Hemingway, ) The finding of the current study that the two groups do not form subgroups of serial killers regarding their spatial behaviour is not consistent with the findings of Salfati and Bateman (), in the sense that they found that sexual acts fell into the category of instrumental behaviours and stealing objects from the victim was found to be an expressive behaviour. However, the role of emotion and planning could not be investigated in this study and further research on the meaning of sexual and acquisitive offending behaviours for serial killers could clarify the role emotions play in the processes that influence location choices.…”

Rhetorical Moves in an Occluded Genre: A Qualitative Analysis of Suicide Notes

“…In accordance with the present results, the structural move apologizing to others was also found in previous studies of suicide notes (e.g., Chia et al, 2008;Delgado, 2013;Ioannou & Debowska, 2014;Jacobs, 1971;Prokofyeva, 2013) as were other structural moves identified in this analysis, including asking for forgiveness (e.g., Black & Lester, 2003;Chia et al, 2008;McClelland et al, 2000), saying goodbye (e.g., Darbonne, 1969;Ioannou & Debowska, 2014;Shapero, 2011), and assigning blame including self and others blame (e.g., McClelland et al, 2000;Nashef, 2010;Pestian et al, 2012;Sanger & Veach, 2008).…”

“…A large and constantly growing body of literature has investigated suicide notes (e.g., Bauer et al, 1997;Black, 1993;Coster & Lester, 2013;Ioannou & Debowska, 2014;Joiner et al, 2002;Leenaars, 1988;O'Connor & Leenaars 2004;Shapero, 2011;, 1960. Suicide notes are texts usually written minutes before the suicide act (Leenaars, 1988;O'Connor & Leenaars, 2004), and they are considered as a source of data which researchers use to gain insights into the phenomenon of suicide.…”

“…As well, genuine suicide notes had more neutral thought units which were represented by giving instructions to survivors or relatives of the note writer. Shneidman and Farberow's (1957) innovative study marked the beginning of the subsequent investigations of suicide notes and many more recent studies (e.g., Bennell et al, 2011;Ioannou & Debowska, 2014;Roubidoux, 2012;Shapero, 2011) Some studies set out to investigate newly obtained corpora of genuine and simulated suicide notes (e.g., Black, 1993, corpus from San Francisco). Some shared findings of this line of research, similarly to the pioneering study by Shneidman and Farberow (1957), suggest that genuine suicide notes reflect more positive feelings such as the expressions of love and affection (e.g., Ioannou & Debowska, 2014) are longer, and contain more instructions to survivors compared to simulated suicide notes (e.g., Black, 1993;Osgood & Walker, 1959).…”

“…This finding of the present research study mirrors those of the previous studies that have examined the linguistic content of suicide notes. For example, Ioannou and Debowska (2014),…”