Menendez Murders: Parricide in Perspective (From Trends, Risks, and Interventions in Lethal Violence: Proceedings of the Third Annual Spring Symposium of the Homicide Research Working Group, P 191-194, 1995, Carolyn Block and Richard Block, eds.)

• NCJ Number: 159903
• Author(s): K M Heide
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 4 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Justice Programs (OJP)
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/NCJRS
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. NIJ Research Report, See NCJ-154254 for complete document.

Annotation

This paper uses the homicide case involving the Menendez brothers to discuss circumstances under which children kill their parents.

Abstract

Three types of individuals who kill their parents include the severely abused child, the severely mentally ill child, and the dangerously antisocial child. In cases involving severely abused children, there are often legal elements of self defense present that compelled them to kill their parents in order to survive physically or psychologically. Adolescents who are severely mentally ill or psychotic and kill their parents require hospitalization, at least until their mental disorder has been stabilized. Children who kill their parents to serve an instrumental, selfish end could be classified as dangerously antisocial, or sociopathic. Characteristics of the Menendez brothers and of the murder of their parents are compared and contrasted to typical cases involving severely abused children. 2 references