Criminological aspect of suicide in Poland in the period 2014-2019

The paper discusses and analyses the criminological aspect of suicide in Poland in the period of 2014-2019. The first part of the paper introduces classification of suicidal behaviour and terminology related to auto-aggression and self-harm acts. On the basis of statistical data provided by the Polish Police Headquarters, the authors present and analyse the structure and dynamics of completed and attempted suicides in the studied period and show the scale of the phenomenon and its development tendencies. In the second part of the paper, the authors provide a criminological classification of violent death due to its cause. Based on the literature of the subject, the authors then make an analysis of selected deadly methods which by definition are the consequence of the suicidal decision or the consequence of a murder disguised as suicide or simply, consequences of an unfortunate accident. The paper culminates with the analysis of the phenomenon of suicide in Poland based on the Police statistics with respect to the effectiveness of methods used in order to take one’s own life. In the ratio of suicidal deaths to suicide attempts the authors determine the methods which trigger the highest percentage of deaths i.e. the methods with higher level of aggression or higher determination of the suicidal individual. It is also observed that the Police list of suicide methods features new additions.