Analysis of Parricide and Filicide in Korea

Abstract

Parricide, the crime of murdering a parent, accounts for about 5% of all homicides. Filicide is the crime of murdering one’s own child. This study aimed to review demographicfeatures and criminal characteristics of individuals who committed parricideand filicide in Republic of Korea (ROK). This study is based on data from the KoreaPolice Crime Analysis System, from 2006 2013. We assessed the diverse characteristicsof both victims and perpetrators. Over the selected period, 381 parents werekilled by their children and 230 children were killed by parents in the ROK. Parricidescaused by schizophrenic murders accounted for 39.6% of all cases. Moreover,approximately 44.4% of the perpetrators attempted suicide following the maternal filicide. In our findings, psychiatric illness was a very important predictor in parricide, andthese further suggest that young mothers with severe mental illness require carefulmonitoring by mental health support service.