Matricide versus patricide in one Croatian psychiatric forensic inpatient unit

Abstract

IntroductionParricide (referring as parental homicide) is a rare event among homicides, yet challenging and intriguing from psychiatric point of view. Still, literature concerning parricide is sparse and most studies concern small or heterogenous samples or anecdotal cases.ObjectiveTo analyze differences in parricide offenders among forensic psychiatric inpatients at the university psychiatric hospital Vrapče's centre for forensic psychiatry.AimsTo test some differences between parricide offenders with regard to specific type of parricide.MethodsAvailable retrograde data of 50 years forensic inpatients (n = 430). We identified parricide cases of matricide and patricide included.ResultsThe analysis included a total of 22 parricide offenders. All parricide offenders were male adults. Matricide was more prevalent then patricide (13 vs. 9). Matricide offenders were in average younger when committed crime, had more prevalence of psychotic disorders and earlier onset of symptoms in comparison with patricide group.ConclusionWe identified differences and similarities between these two parricide offenders groups. It is important to expand research further including different types of motives and family dynamics regarding the type of parricide victim.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.