Two Decades of Adolescent Suicides Assessed at Milan University's Medicolegal Unit

Highlights

• Seventy-eight autopsy cases of adolescents suicide in 20 years were analyzed.
• Epidemiology, forensic pathology and psychopathological data were discussed.
• Adolescents were involved in 2.23% of all suicides committed in the Milan area.
• In the majority of cases there were no premonitory signs or particular motives.

Aim

to analyze the cases of suicide committed by adolescents in and around the city of Milan over a 20-year period (1993–2012).

Materials and methods

cases of suicide involving individuals between 10 and 19 years of age were drawn from 20,757 autopsies performed by the Medico-legal Unit at Milan University. Seventy-eight cases were considered (20 females and 58 males, with the ratio of 1:2.9), and their clinical and circumstantial histories, epidemiology, forensic pathology and psychopathological issues were analyzed.

Result

Adolescents were involved in 2.23% of all suicides committed in Milan during the period examined. The “mean” victim is a male without psychiatric disease, aged between 16 and 19, that commits suicide outdoors.

Conclusions

In the majority of cases, there were no premonitory signs, nor any particular contingent or remote reason that might explain these violent deaths, which therefore remain “impulsive”.

Below:  Graphical representation of the annual distribution of the suicides

Below:  Graphical representation of the monthly distribution of the suicides

Below:  Distribution of the sample of adolescents by method chosen to commit suicide

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/F6rnkQ 

By:  Clerici CA1, Gentile G2, Marchesi M3, Muccino E2, Veneroni L1, Zoja R4.

• 1Sezione di Psicologia, Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia Medico Chirurgica e dei Trapianti, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Fratelli Cervi 93, 20090 Segrate MI, Italy.
• 2Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133 Milano, Italy.
• 3Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII, Piazza OMS 1, 24127 Bergamo, Italy.
• 4Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133 Milano, Italy. Electronic address: riccardo.zoia@unimi.it.
• J Forensic Leg Med. 2016 Jan;37:15-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2015.09.016. Epub 2015 Oct 3. 

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Experiences of Discrimination, Harassment, and Violence in a Sample of Italian Transsexuals Who Have Undergone Sex-Reassignment Surgery

The present study aims to provide an overview of experiences of discrimination, harassment, and violence in a sample of Italian transsexuals who have undergone sex-reassignment surgery (SRS). Lack of support for gender transition from family members was also assessed, before and after SRS. 

Data were collected in the context of a multicentric study (Milan, Florence, and Bari) on SRS outcome. Patients who underwent SRS were contacted and asked to fill out a questionnaire concerning experiences of discrimination, harassment, violence, and crime they might have experienced in previous years. 

Seventy-two participants took part in the research: 46 were male-to-female (MtF; 64%) and 26 were female-to-male (FtM; 36%). Thirty-six percent of the total sample (with no differences between MtF and FtM) experienced at least one episode of harassment, violence, or discrimination. 

The workplace was reported to be the social area with the highest risk of discrimination and harassment (22% of participants). Reports of more than one incident of discrimination, harassment, and violence characterized the majority of participants in the MtF sample. 

Compared with previous studies carried out in other countries, a much larger proportion of participants could count on a supportive family environment before and after transition. 

Our results show that Italian society at large is prejudiced against transsexuals, but at a more "micro" level, having a trans person as a family member might result in a protective and tolerant attitude.

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By:  Prunas A1, Bandini E2, Fisher AD2, Maggi M2, Pace V3, Quagliarella L3, Todarello O3, Bini M4.

• 1University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy Associazione Italiana Sessuologia e Psicologia Applicata, Milan, Italy Ospedale Niguarda-Ca' Granda, Milano, Italy antonio.prunas@unimib.it.
• 2Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
• 3University of Bari, Italy.
• 4Ospedale Niguarda-Ca' Granda, Milano, Italy.
• J Interpers Violence. 2016 Jan 12. pii: 0886260515624233 

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Italy - PornHub 2015 Use Review

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Transphobic Murders in Italy: An Overview of Homicides in Milan (Italy) in the Past Two Decades (1993-2012)

In Europe, 71 murders resulting in the death of transgendered persons were reported between 2008 and 2013, 20 of which perpetrated in Italy, the second highest rate in Europe after Turkey. We retrospectively analyzed the homicides of transgender people recorded at the Medicolegal Bureau in Milan from January 1993 to December 2012. First we considered the sociodemographic data of 20 victims and the circumstantial details of their deaths, then we examined the data related to the cause of death from the autopsy reports. 

Our data show that victims are mostly immigrants, biological males presenting with a feminine attire and with varying degrees of feminization. The large majority of the victims were sex workers from South America. As for murderers, they were unknown in 7 cases (35%); all the 13 murderers identified were males, aged between 17 and 63 (M age = 31 years). In 38% of the cases, the murderer was the victim's current or former partner. For half of the homicides, it was possible to identify at least one primary indicator of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) hate crime. 

Our findings call for the need to make explicit in Italian legislation that a crime perpetrated on the ground of sexual orientation and gender identity constitutes a hate crime.

Via:  http://ht.ly/S7sey

By: Prunas A1, Clerici CA2, Gentile G3, Muccino E3, Veneroni L2, Zoja R4.

• 1University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
• 2Sezione di Psicologia - Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia Medico Chirurgica e dei Trapianti - Via Fratelli Cervi 93, 20090 Segrate (MI), Italia.
• 3Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute- Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133 Milan, Italy.
• 4Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute- Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133 Milan, Italy