NCJ Number
145823
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1993) Pages: 531-544
Date Published
1993
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The commonly occurring but not commonly studied phenomenon of parricide is investigated.
Abstract
Cases in which parents or stepparents were slain during the period 1977 to 1986 were analyzed. Overwhelmingly, the offspring perpetrators were of adult age--but less so in cases involving stepparent, especially stepfather, victims. In total, perpetrators were usually males (from 85 to 87 percent among the four victim classes). Victims, especially females, tended to be white. The rate of parricide by Hispanics was extremely low (from 3 to 6 percent) considering their proportion of the total population (7 percent) and their involvement in total homicide arrests (16 percent). Matricide offenders on average were older than patricide offenders, probably due to a weakening of the very strong mother-child bond over the course of a lifetime. Between 98 and 99.6 percent of all the parricides were classified as murder, not manslaughter. The rate of juvenile parricide did not demonstrably increase during the 10-year period. 3 tables and 16 references