The psychological autopsy: Contradictio in adiecto?

Aim of this paper is to outline the art-of-the-state around the so called psychological autopsy, more and more applied in many forensic settings at international level, and also by a few years, more and more in some criminal cases in Italy. The work was performed taking into account the existing literature on the issue by discussing the various existing psychological autopsy protocols and methods. In addition a possible application of an psychological autopsy method has been discussed through the presentation of two criminal cases. Finally some ethical and methodological considerations and recommendations about the possible role of the criminologist in developing a psychological autopsy have been discussed.