El. knyga: Suicide by Cop: Committing Suicide by Provoking Police to Shoot You

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.

Lester teaches psychology at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, and has written 70-plus books and 2,000-plus scholarly articles on suicide, murder, and other aspects of death; Lindsay is a former Baltimore police officer and detective who holds degrees in criminal justice and clinical psychology. They examine the growing phenomenon of suicide-by-cop what is known about it so far, other situations in which individuals commit suicide during police confrontations, justifiable homicide by police, similar phenomena found in other cultures, "rampage murders," victim-precipitated murder, suicide-by-execution, murder-suicide, issues that suicide-by-cop raises for the criminal justice system, and possible ways to reduce this phenomenon. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)