The results of a study of filicide and familicide

Abstract

Each case in which there is the sudden killing of a child by a supposedly `loving' parent is unique, yet every single case has the same consequences: devastation, chaos, suffering on an unparalleled scale, and suffering and loss etched in the memories of friends and loved ones for a lifetime to come. Such consequences are often lost in the statistics of Chapter 4, and in anonymized, massively redacted serious case reviews. They are also largely invisible in psychological profiling of the perpetrator, and in ideological perspectives that aim to locate the cause of filicide in the structure of the family, the oppression of women, or aggression in men.