One can scarcely pick up a daily newspaper without seeing detailed accounts of children and adolescents who have killed or been killed, either by others or by their own hand. Investigating Suicide and Homicide Few behaviors are more complex than suicide or homicide. One needs to be steeped in the diverse sciences of psychopathology, personality, psychodynamics, medicine, genetics, biochemistry and toxicology, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, and history simply to follow the relevant research that has been generated, let alone to make new contributions to existing knowledge. It is becoming increasingly apparent that both large-scale as well as individual approaches are necessary to understand better the phenomena of youthful suicide and homicide. These macroscopic and microscopic approaches are perhaps best represented by the epidemiologic and clinical perspectives.
Epidemiology refers to the frequency and distribution of disease.
Integrations of epidemiologic and clinical perspectives are resulting in important new information in this area. In addition, investigating suicide and homicide together as well as separately is advancing our knowledge. As described below, suicide and homicide have both important similarities and differences and studying them in concert can prove useful. With respect to rage and patterns of youthful violence, it seems important to study long-term as well as current trends. Only in this way can one avoid shortsighted sensationalism, which obscures rather than illuminates.