Aberrant deaths: a conundrum in domestic homicide reviews

The Family Violence Death Review Committee (FVDRC) have historically classified those deaths that do not apparently fit within a pattern of violence as ‘aberrant’. The article aims to determine if the FVDRC classification system has been incorrectly identifying deaths as aberrant when there is the potential to prevent such deaths.Within this investigation, we reviewed the classification of apparently aberrant deaths within the Aotearoa New Zealand Family Violence Death Review system. We also reviewed the literature that describes the nexus between mental disorder and family violence homicide to inform future classifications. Most homicides, including those associated with mental disorder, do not occur ‘out of the blue’ and are, as such, incorrectly classified as aberrant. Some of those incorrectly classified describe non-compliance with medication in combination with drug/alcohol abuse and/or a history of violence or trauma in the family.Engagement with the psychiatric community will increase awareness of psycho-bio-social risks across the life course of families and individuals and allow preventative interventions and solutions to be identified. This provides hope for families who are supporting people with severe mental disorders, highlighting the importance of effective, comprehensive support in the community. There are a small number of cases that are truly aberrant. In these, the homicide occurred during the sudden onset of an acute first episode psychosis after a very short prodromal phase, often identified in retrospect and atypical in the life of the offender.