不審死の捜査についての大学生の素朴な自殺の判断

―遺書の有無および自殺を支持しない故人情報の提示の有無の影響―

抄録

This study examined the relationship between judgements of suicide by laypersons in suspicious death investigations, and the presence or absence of a suicide note and deceased's information that did not support suicide. We asked university students to judge the possibility of suicide in a fictitious investigation of suspicious death; 72 subjects received a case with "a suicide note" and deceased's information, 71 subjects received a case with "a suicide note" and without deceased's information, 71 subjects received a case with "no suicide note" and deceased's information, and 72 subjects received a case with "no suicide note" and without deceased's information. Analysis of variance results showed that subjects who received a case with "a suicide note" judged the possibility of suicide as slightly higher than subjects receiving cases without "a suicide note". Subjects who received the deceased's information judged the possibility of suicide as slightly higher than subjects without it.