Chapter 5 - Profiling in Violent Crimes: The Perpetrator and the Victim in Cases of Filicide

Abstract

Parental love is unquestionable in our culture, and the possibility that a parent would act to intentionally harm their child is usually considered anathema. Few crimes stir such strong emotions as those involving the intentional killing of an infant or an older child. When the death of a defenseless child occurs at the hands of a parent, it is only natural to seek answers to the causes of such tragedies and to question why they could not have been avoided. Abhorrent events of this type play on peoples' fears and command both community and media attention. However, history tells us that filicide has been an ever-present social issue across all of recorded history and across all corners of the world. The powerful, biological drive to procreate, pass on our genetic inheritance, and protect our children as the inherent carriers of this genetic immortality is at stark odds with the idea that filicide has been ever-present and, at times, relatively proliferate. This chapter frames filicide in historical and conceptual terms, to make an extensive review of literature about protective and risk factors to the perpetration of the crime by one or both parents, to examine the gender differences in filicidal offense characteristics and associated variables in order to establish a common profile of filicidal offenders and victims and to suggest some strategies to prevent this crime.