Filicide – the murder of children committed by parents – is a very shocking event that occurs in all types of cultures, either as an isolated act or systematically, since ancient times. In this Psychology-Online article you will find What is filicide, meaning and types. We will address the topic by addressing conceptual issues as well as the different types of filicide that exist and the main characteristics of filicide. We seek to give greater scientific dissemination to a phenomenon that occurs and yet is little talked about due to the great moral censure we feel towards everything that happens within the family, even more so when it is an event as serious as a murder.
In a generic way, Filicide is defined as the murder of children committed by parents.. The term began to be used around the 1970s since, previously, both medical publications and other types of studies were reluctant to talk about the subject with the proper definition. It is a term closely related to domestic violence and maternal violence, topics that have also always been taboo.
There are different concepts related to filicide that we must also clarify:
- Parricide: kill one’s own father.
- Matricide: kill one’s own mother.
- uxoricide: homicide or murder of the spouse by the husband.
- Infanticide: It differs from filicide because it is the murder of children after 24 hours of life and within the first year. According to penal codes of other countries, it also refers to 48 hours after birth and even two or three years of age.
- Fratricide: homicide or murder of one’s own brother.
- Neonaticide: This is the act of murdering a newborn within the first 24 hours of life. It can be active (direct physical violence) or it can be passive (due to some negligence).
As a result of a study carried out by Resnick, filicide could be classified into different typologies according to the motivation of different aggressors interviewed regardless of their personal diagnosis. The list that could be extracted is the following:
- altruistic filicide
- Acutely psychotic filicide
- Filicide by unwanted child
- accidental filicide
- Filicide as revenge
1. Altruistic filicide
A significant percentage of filicides are explained by altruistic motives. They play an important role in this fact major depressive disorders, psychotic depressions and even psychoses. It is necessary to differentiate whether it is a true altruistic motivation or a delusional disorder. Many people who commit this type of filicide show thoughts like: “I have given my son peace” or “I love him so much…”. Many women commit this type and consider themselves good mothers and do not even understand why they committed the murder. There are also two different typologies within this class:
- Altruistic filicide associated with the perpetrator’s suicide: deep personal feeling of the need to commit suicide, not being able to leave their children alone in the world without them, so they feel they must kill them.
- Altruistic filicide committed to alleviate the suffering of the victim: they end the life of the son or daughter due to some real or imaginary suffering of the latter.
2. Acutely psychotic filicide
It corresponds to the weakest category of the typologies. These include cases where the father or mother kills the child. fruit of a hallucination, delusional ideas or epileptic states. They usually suffer from major mental disorders with a strong lack of reasoning, emotional impulses transform into violent behavior. Alcohol abuse is rarely present as a direct cause in this typology, contrary to what one might think.
3. Filicide by unwanted child
This typology usually corresponds to neonaticide, but is also found in filicide. The motive for the murder is having an unwanted baby. It is usually the illegitimacy of the child or the absence of a father figure that leads to the act in the case of women. In men it would be the fact of having doubts about their paternity or perceiving the child as an obstacle to their goals. Economic difficulties would also be another cause; it has been shown that if the socioeconomic level is very adverse, the risk of infanticide increases.
4. Accidental filicide
Cases in which the minor is child abuse victim. The homicidal intention is not clear in the aggressor, which is why they are defined as accidental. Parents are usually the aggressor in this case because they more easily show outbursts of violence because they want to instill discipline in the minor. Deaths from shaken baby syndrome are also included. Bullies have usually been victims of abuse and neglect during their childhood and often suffer from episodes of great stress. It is important to keep in mind: 1) a stressor can cause a state of crisis in the aggressor, 2) the aggressor has or perceives a significant lack of support and 3) the aggressor perceives defects in the victim.
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5. Filicide as revenge
In these cases, the parent murders his or her son or daughter to make the other parent suffer. It corresponds to the one known as Medea Complex, described in classical mythology. The mother presents death wishes towards her own son because he sees him as a rival and wants to take revenge on her father. The ages of the victims, in these cases, are usually higher than in other typologies. Aggressors usually suffer severe personality disorderschaotic relationships and major episodes of self-harm.