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Alessandra Bramante E. Beringheli, A De Micheli, I. Merzagora Betsos Department of Criminology Forensic Institute – Legal Medicine University of Milan, Italy.
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Alessandra Bramante E. Beringheli, A De Micheli, I. Merzagora Betsos Department of Criminology Forensic Institute – Legal Medicine University of Milan, Italy The profile of mother and father who kill their children:differences between filicide committed by father and by mother, and social perception 8th International Investigative Psychology Conference “PERPETRATORS, PROFILING, POLICING: Theory & Practise” 15-16 December 2005, London South Bank University
The research Introduction Since official statistics do not specify the relationship between murderer and victim, we have also searched for our information from the press, despite the shortcomings and possible inaccuracies, taking into consideration the period between 1989 and november 2005. Materials All the cases of neonaticide and filicide, reported in the press, committed or attempted by either mother or father, have been thaken into consideration for the period starting from 1989 to november 2005.
The research With the term “neonaticide” we have considered the murder of the son which occurs at birth and within the first 24 hours following birth. With the term “filicide” we have considered murders taking place following the first day of life.
Filicide in Italy from 1989 to november 2005
Types of crime Between attempted murder and those actually committed there is generally sexual equality as to whom commits them with only a slight prevalence of attempts by mothers, perhaps because they are more ambivalent or simply more clumsy since they tend to kill younger and more vulnerable victims.
Geographic location Most murders were committed in the North of Italy, which is not surprising because of the greater demographic consistency of Northern Italy. As usual it is Central Italy which seems to be less prone to this type of crime.
Means of aggression Here we begin to see very different filicide crime scenes, with fathers engaged in a sort of “confrontation” on an unequal basis with someone like himself, and mother who kill children at a tender age, because of the vulnerability of the victim that does not require great strength to suppress.
The motives of filicide Filicides committed by father seem to be more orientated toward conflicts (because of study, work, self-defense from the violence of the son or from exasperation resulting from drug addiction of the son/daughter, etc.) On the contrary child abuse and negligence are more common in mothers as well as mental illness.
Sex of victim FathersMother 142 149 91 boys 51 girls 77 boys 72 girls
Age of victim In more than half of the cases mothers murder babies or children below the age of one, while fathers in more than one third of the cases tend to kill young adults. This difference can be interpreted in the close relationship between mother and child in the tender years of life, that is offset by an equally potential relationship of aggression.
Age of the perpetrator According to the different age of the victims, even the age of the perpetrator is different in the sense that mothers tend to be younger than fathers and there are minors only among the mothers.
Other victims Another difference regards the greater productivity of the fathers, who in 16% of the cases kill more children for a total of 142 victims, while mothers do it in 8% of the cases and their victims number is 149. In the sample the fathers predominate for what involves the murder of other family members, mainly the wife but sometimes also the entire family nucleus (10%).
Suicide and attempted suicide following filicide These are tied to a common pathological determining factor, which is very serious deep depression, and the resulting suicide is present primarily in fathers. Filicide mothers are more prone to attempted suicide.
Conclusion In conclusion, mothers and fathers kill children of different ages, in different ways, with different motives and we could even say that they kill different children. In the filicide mother who is often “neonaticide”, there is a perversion of the attachment/separation syndrome, a symbiotic tie that cannot overcome the fact that the child is a different human being from herself. On the contrary outbursts of anger for rivalry and competition, revenge, economic matters – inheritance seem to be the main factors motivating a father to commit filicide.
Conclusion 2 Undoubtedly, even in this case it is a matter of a crime based on sentimental ties and emotions, psychological conflicts and unresolved complexes. There is a mechanism that unites this maternal and paternal filicides and it is that of the “inhumane” son who becomes the instrument creating suffering and attracting the attention of the real object of attachment but also that of hostility. For both mother and father filicide, there is the incapacity to distinguish themselves from the son or daughter and treat the offspring as an object/instrument and ultimately as a weapon. The expected outcome is nothing more than material well-being which is often accompanied by moral and emotional desertification and, the case in which the filicides are executed in the presence of signals of unrest or even past histories that have not been completely considered, could support this conclusion.
