Perpetrators of family violence sometimes use threats of suicide to control their partner

Men’s suicide is often linked to social and economic factors such as financial problems, legal issues and unemployment. But when seeking to understand men’s suicide, we shouldn’t overlook important questions of responsibility, choice, and agency – especially in the case of men who kill themselves in the context of relationship conflict and intimate partner violence.

Our research found threats of self-harm and suicide were a tactic of coercive control men used against female partners. Together with other forms of physical, emotional, economic and psychological controlling behaviour, threats of self-harm and suicide were intended to instil fear and exert power over women.

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