Parricide: Psychiatric morbidity

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Parricide is defined as a murder of parents by their children; the patricide is murder of father, while matricide is murder of mother. This entity is classified as homicide, but it differs in the fact that victims are parents and the killers are their children. Mostly, it is associated with psychiatric morbidity. OBJECTIVE To describe sociodemographic and psychopathological characteristics of parricide committers and to analyze circumstances of parricide and psychiatric morbidity in order to achieve better recognition and prevention of risks. METHOD This retrospective study included all homicide autopsy records (1991-2005) performed at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Medical School, University of Belgrade. For further analyses, all parricide records were selected out. The study analyzed all available parameters, which concerned parricide committers, victims and the act itself. Methods of descriptive statistics were used. RESULTS Between 1991 and 2005, there were 948 cases of homicide; of these, 3.5% were parricides. The committers of parricide were on average 31.2?11.9 years old, 87.8% were males, 60.6% with psychiatric symptoms most commonly with schizophrenia, alcohol dependence, personality disorder etc. Victims were on average 63.7?11.9 years old, 54.5% males, and 21.2% had a diagnosed mental illness. CONCLUSION Parricide is a rare kind of homicide accounting for 3% of all homicides. Committers are mostly unemployed males in early adulthood who have mental disorder. The phenomenon of parricide deserves a detailed analysis of the committer (individual bio-psycho-social profile) and the environ- mental factors (family, closely related circumstances) to enable a precise prediction of the act and prevention of the fatal outcome, which logically imposes the need of further studies.Uvod. Paricid se definise kao ubistvo roditelja od strane deteta, te je odatle patricid ubistvo oca, a matricid ubistvo majke. Entitet se svrstava u homicid, od kojeg se razlikuje po cinjenici da su zrtve roditelji, a pocinioci njihova deca. U velikoj meri povezan je s morbiditetom psihijatrijskog tipa. Cilj rada. Cilj rada je bio da se opisu izvrsioci paricida prema sociodemografskim i psihopatoloskim odlikama i analiziraju okolnosti paricida i psihijatrijski morbiditet ispitivanog uzorka, radi efikasnijeg prepoznavanja i prevencije rizika. Metod rada. Retrospektivno istrazivanje je obuhvatilo obdukcione zapisnike homicida za period 1991-2005. godine na Institutu za sudsku medicinu Medicinskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu, a za dalje analize izdvojeni su slucajevi paricida. Ispitani su parametri koji se ticu izvrsioca, zrtve i samog cina ubistva. Korisceni su metodi deskriptivne statistike. Rezultati U periodu 1991-2005. godine zabelezeno je 948 slucajeva homicida, od kojih su 33 bili paricidi (3,5%). Izvrsioci paricida bili su prosecno stari 31,2?11,9 godina, vecinom muskarci (87,8%) i u 60,6% slucajeva ispoljavali su simptome psihijatrijskog oboljenja (shizofrenija, alkoholizam, poremecaj licnosti itd). Zrtve su, pak, bile prosecno stare 63,7?11,9 godina, vecinom muskarci (54,5%) i u 21,2% slucaja sa dijagnostikovanom psihijatrijskom bolescu. Zakljucak. Paricid je redak oblik ubistva sa zastupljenoscu od oko 3% u svim ubistvima. Izvrsioci su osobe u ranom adultnom periodu, cesce muskog pola, nezaposleni i sa dusevnim poremecajem. Fenomen paricida zasluzuje detaljniju analizu motivacije izvrsilaca, viktimoloskih faktora i okolnosti izvrsenja, radi tacnijeg predvidjanja cina i efikasnijeg sprecavanja fatalnog ishoda, sto se namece kao logican nastavak ove studije.