An alleged suicide pact, in which a young person committed suicide while two others had the same intention, is currently the subject of a magisterial inquiry, Minister for Justice Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici revealed in reply to a question by by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo.
Bartolo asked whether there was a police investigation into suicide pacts involving young people associated with “Goth” culture – a youth subculture whose fascination with the macabre has raised public concern in other countries.
In his reply the Minister did not establish any link between gothic culture and the alleged suicide pact. But internet portal Maltastar revealed the case involved a “gothic suicide ritual involving three persons .”
In the United States, the authors of Columbine High School massacre carried out in 1999 by two students was originally blamed on the Gothic sub culture. But the investigation established that the students actually hated goth music.
Other music genres have also been linked to suicidal behaviour.
In 2005 France was shocked by the twin suicide of two girls who bound their hands together and jumped from a 17th storey window. The girls were obsessed by talk of death, and the weblog kept by one of the girls contained long and morbid extracts from the lyrics of a leading French black metal band.
A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2006 revealed more than half of 19-year-olds who identified as Goths admitted self-mutilating behaviour such as cutting or said they had attempted suicide. But the researchers said it is unclear which came first: participation in Goth culture or harmful behaviour.
The Goth subculture evolved from punk in the late 1980s and was inspired by n19th century gothic litreture and is associated with dark/‘vamp’ attire and make up.
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