Offspring-Perpetrated Familicide

• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Author: Averi R. Fegadel,Kathleen M. Heide
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X15589091
• Date: 01 January 2017
• Subject Matter: Articles

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2017, Vol. 61(1) 6 –24

© The Author(s) 2015

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X15589091

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Article

Offspring-Perpetrated

Familicide: Examining Family

Homicides Involving Parents

as Victims

Averi R. Fegadel1 and Kathleen M. Heide1

Abstract

The majority of studies examining familicide involve the male head of the family killing his

wife or intimate partner and children. Little research exists on familicide cases involving

children killing one or both parents plus other family members (siblings, grandparents,

etc.). This study used the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which currently

contains arrest data for about 25% of the U.S. population, to examine familicide incidents

perpetrated by adult and juvenile offenders over the 20-year period from 1991 to 2010.

Fourteen cases of familicide involving two different family victim types were identified.

None of these cases involved multiple offenders. Frequencies reported include victim,

offender, and incident characteristics. The typical familicide offender was a White male

approximately 26 years of age. Firearms predominated as murder weapons in these

incidents; however, when a biological mother was one of the victims, offenders used

more diverse methods. Only one case of familicide involved a female offender.

Newspapers were searched to supplement available case information. Findings from this

study were similar to cases identified by Liem and Reichelmann as “extended parricide

cases” in their familicide study using Supplementary Homicide Report data. Study

limitations, implications, and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords

familicide, family murders, mass murder, parricide, matricide, patricide

Murders involving multiple victims, often referred to as mass murders or multicides,

typically receive significant media attention because killings of this nature appear

so different and bizarre in relation to killings involving a single victim and offender

1University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kathleen M. Heide, Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue,

Social Sciences Room 107, Tampa, Florida 33620-8100, USA.

Email: kheide@usf.edu

589091IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X15589091International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyFegadel and Heide

research-article2015

Fegadel and Heide 7

(Fox & Levin, 1994). Mass murders are particularly shocking when the victims

are killed by another family member (Levin & Fox, 1985). Multiple victim murders

perpetrated by a family member, referred to as familicides, have commonly been asso-

ciated in the professional literature with the patriarchal slaying of a wife or intimate

partner and children, often followed by the suicide of the killer (e.g., Barnes, 2002;

Duwe, 2004; Liem, Levin, Holland, & Fox, 2013; Websdale, 2010).

Liem and Reichelmann (2014) loosely defined familicide as the killing of multiple

family members; they acknowledged the heterogeneity that exists among familicides

and thus categorized familicide into four groups: Despondent Husbands, Spousal

Revenge, Extended Parricide, and Diffuse Conflict. The first two categories involved

killings by depressed husbands and angry spouses seeking revenge against their mari-

tal partners, respectively. Extended Parricides, the third type, involved relatively

young men “whose primary anger was directed toward one or both parents” and

resulted from a “desire either to commit suicide or remove the tormentor” (Liem &

Reichelmann, 2014, p. 11). Diffuse Conflict familicides, the remaining type, involved

a prevalence of conflicts and a diverse constellation of victims; often including a

spouse and in-laws, parents, and other family members, or secondary relations such as

grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, or nephews (Liem & Reichelmann, 2014).

Despite the interest in multiple family killings “throughout history and across cul-

tures,” studies that have investigated this phenomenon are surprisingly few and have

largely focused on the homicidal incidents involving spouses and children (Liem &

Reichelmann, 2014, p. 44). The lack of studies is particularly apparent when the killers

are children or stepchildren. To date, research on offspring-perpetrated largely consists

of case studies. The current study builds on the seminal research by Liem and

Reichelmann by using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), a

crime database in the United States, to systematically investigate offspring-perpetrated

familicide incidents wherein at least one of the victims was a parent of the offender.

Newspaper searches of cases identified by NIBRS are done to supplement NIBRS data

and to help determine whether these events fall into the Extended Parricide and Diffuse

Conflict categories.

Literature Review

Malmquist (1980) classified familicide as a type of mass murder, wherein a number of

victims are killed in a short period of time by one person. He noted that while psychia-

trists can offer explanations for intrafamilial violent behaviors, not all familicide

offenders bear the same diagnosis. Several investigations of familicides exist in the

literature which rely heavily on case studies and clinical evaluations. Most of these

studies, however, involve the killing of a spouse or intimate partner and children

(A. Anderson, Sisask, & Värnik, 2011; Barnes, 2002; Johnson, 2006; Liem & Koenraadt,

2008; Liem et al., 2013; Scheinin, Rogers, & Sathyavagiswaran, 2011; Scott & Fleming,

2014; Websdale, 2010; Wilson & Daly, 1997; Wilson, Daly, & Daniele, 1995).

Few studies discuss offspring-perpetrated familicide; of those that do, several have

become “pop culture” cases, such as the family killings perpetrated by sons Ronald