NCJ Number
150456
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 38 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1994) Pages: 151-162
Date Published
1994
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Following delineation of the author's definitions of various types of child abuse (physical, sexual, verbal, and psychological abuse; physical, medical, emotional neglect; and emotional incest), he examines extant studies of adolescents who killed parents to determine the presence of any of these specific forms of child maltreatment.
Abstract
Results from the literature search are compared with those from the author's own interviews with seven adolescent parricide offenders. Six of the youths were male, all were white and between the ages of 12 and 17, two had killed both parents, and one had killed a brother. All had used firearms in their homicides. Six of the offenders fit the profile of the severely abused child; four apparently suffered from post- traumatic stress disorder and some dissociation around the homicide was evident in every case. Physical abuse was a factor in the five parricide cases in which fathers were killed. In at least four of the six cases, spouse abuse preceded or coexisted with child maltreatment. Covert sexual abuse was suggested in at least two cases, and all the children had been physically and emotionally neglected by their parents. One of the offenders had suffered from medical neglect, and three from emotional incest. Examination of 10 other studies of adolescent parricide offenders indicated that various forms of child abuse and neglect had been identified by other researchers. 1 table, 3 notes, and 50 references