NCJ Number
159261
Journal
Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: (January-June 1995) Pages: 6-12
Date Published
1995
Length
7 pages
Annotation
In 1990, a woman in Sydney, Australia, slit the throats of her sister-in-law and two daughters who were aged 8 and 9 years; she admitted to planning the murders beforehand, and her primary motivation appeared to be to retaliate against her husband whom she suspected of having an affair with the sister-in-law.
Abstract
The case and other similar cases are analyzed in terms of "retaliating filicide," where anger toward another person is displaced onto a child. In both the literature and sample cases, the person being retaliated against in filicide is usually the perpetrator's partner, whether married or de facto. In some cases, resentment toward the partner is combined with resentment toward another person. Some authors also cite instances where anger toward a significant family member from the offender's childhood, such as a parent, has apparently been displaced onto the child. Because the source of anger in retaliating filicides is invariably the offender's sexual partner, these killings have also been described as spouse revenge, or the "Medea Complex." Men and women tend to kill their children for very different reasons. Men's motives are usually associated with retaliation, discipline, or rejection by the victim. Women tend to kill because the child is unwanted and in response to a long period of physical and psychological abuse. The author notes that, apart from a history of domestic violence, it is relatively rare for women to kill their children. 28 endnotes