PS01-191

WHEN YOU SEED VIOLENCE YOU HARVEST VIOLENCE- ADOLESCENT PARRICIDE

Violence is a learned behavior and the family has been TELLTALE SIGNS OF CHILDREN WHO KILL
considered its primary training ground. - Evidence of family violence
Intrafamilial violence in general is increasing and its - Failed attempts to get help
purview has been expanded through the discovery and - Attempts to run away or commit suicide
study of additional types: elder abuse, sibling violence, - Isolation from peers
child-parent violence, parricide, violence between - Increasingly intolerable family situation
intimates, violence by parents toward children. - Helplessness about changing the family situation
- Inability to cope with what is happening to them
- No criminal record
Parricide* is the murder committed by the child against - A gun available in the home
one or both his/her parents, motivated either by the - Parental alcoholism
child’s severe mental disorder or his/her attempts to - Amnesia reported after murder
protect him/herself or other family member from - Victim's death perceived as relief by all involved.
violence.

*2% USA, 2-3% France, 9% Canada, 1.7% N. Portugal Intelectual capacity and social behavior of the teen
assailant:
-Antisocial behavior
It is often described as the culminating act of
-History of leaving home
desperation, after the juveniles were first the victims of
-Low IQ/mental retardation
prolonged physical, emotional or sexual abuse, and then
-Disturbing behavior in classroom
tried to defend themselves from tyrannical and despotic
-Academic difficulties
actions, eventually becoming the perpetrators.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FAMILY

- stormy and unhappy marriages
CASE PRESENTATION
- socially isolated and
A 12 years old boy killed his father by blowing him
- markedly dysfunctional families
repeatedly with a metal bar.
- cold relationship
The father was a violent person who used to beat his
- distant and punitive parents
wife and sons.
- lack of understanding among parents
The night he committed the crime, the adolescent
witnessed a highly traumatic experience, when he saw
his father beating to death his siblings and threatening
to kill him as well. POSTAGRESSIONAL STATE
After the incident, the boy called the police and -paranoia
recognized the murder. -panic
The complex psychiatric examination revealed that the -anxiety
teenager was a hardworking student without any history -confusion
of mental illness and concluded that he suffered an -remorse, guilt
acute stress reaction on the background of repeated -self-punishment by sucide
psychical and emotional abuse and that his judgment -leaving the scene
was abolished at the moment he committed the crime. -hiding the body (more frequently in premeditation crimes)

The agression is more personal when the injuries are located on the head and face.

severely abused children
severely mentally ill
children
dangerously antisocial
children
Heide’s typology
kill their parents because they are terrified and/or desperate, and see no other way to
end the abuse
kill their parents because of an serious underlying mental illness that compromises
their contact with reality
kill their parents for selfish instrumental reasons such as getting more freedom or
access to an inheritance

CONCLUSIONS. Parricide is the terminal point of REFERENCES

1. Heide KM, Petee TA. Parricide: An Empirical Analysis of 24
family violence and although is a rare event, it impacts Years of U.S. Data. J Interpes Violence. 2007;22(11):1382-
negatively all members of the family. 99.
A complex medico-legal expertise is mandatory, 2. Heide KM. Parents who get killed and the children who kill
including the victim’s autopsy and the psychiatric them. J Interpes Violence. 1993;8:531-544.
examination of the offender, in order to accurately 3. Hillbrand M, Cipriano T. Commentary: parricides unanswered
identify the underlying reasons in committing the questions, methodological obstacles, and legal
considerations. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2007; 35(3):313-6
parricide.