Filicide: A gendered profile of offender, victim, and event characteristics in a national sample of reported incidents, 1995–2009

Abstract

Filicide is the intentional act of a parent killing their own child. Encompassing both neonaticide (victims less than a day old), and infanticide (victims less than a year old), filicide is often defined to include biological and stepparents as offenders with victims under the age of 18. As the risk of becoming a victim of homicide is greatest during the first year of life, and parents or stepparents are the most likely perpetrators, there is a pressing need for further research in this area. Existing work has been limited by definitional variation, small sample sizes, and inconsistent or conflicting findings. Furthermore, there is a notable lack of research incorporating a comparison of maternal versus paternal filicide. The present exploratory and descriptive study examines a large sample of reported incidents, using 15 years of National Incident-Based Reporting System data (1995 to 2009), to provide a much needed and more comprehensive source of aggregate-level baseline information on this understudied violent crime. Presenting a comparison of maternal and paternal filicide, basic demographic characteristics including victim/offender age, sex and race are explored in relation to incident characteristics including, substance abuse, location, and weapon usage.