Family Murder in the Republic of South Africa: A Case of Misguided Family Rights and Responsibilities? (From The Victimology Handbook: Research Findings, Treatment, and Public Policy, P 95-105, 1990, Emilio Viano, ed. -- See NCJ-126951)

• NCJ Number: 126958
• Author(s): R Pretorius
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 11 pages
• Sale Source: Garland Publishing, Inc.
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study proposes an explanation for the series of "family murders" in South Africa since 1983.

Abstract

"Family murder," as used in this study, refers to one spouse killing the other and some or all of the children, followed immediately by the killer's suicide. Although such incidents were unknown or very rare in South Africa prior to 1983, since then a number of such murder-suicides have occurred among the Afrikaans-speaking white population. This study argues that war on the country's border, urban terrorism, political unrest, disinvestment, unemployment (which has affected whites seriously since 1980), and the threat of black majority rule and socialism/communism has brought despair to many whites. The fact that the "family murders" were not apparently committed out of rage suggests they resulted form measured decisions by the killers. The study postulates the killings resulted from the killers' culturally conditioned misguided sense of duty as family heads, acting on a rescue fantasy. 12-item bibliography