NCJ Number
140481
Date Published
1992
Length
216 pages
Annotation
Using case studies and an analysis of FBI data, this volume examines the motivations and backgrounds of adolescents who murder their parents, explores types of intervention that are effective in treating both severely abused children and abused youth who kill their parents, and proposes ways in which the media and the educational system can help prevent both child abuse and parricide.
Abstract
The text is directed to professionals in juvenile justice, criminology, law, mental health, education, and youth advocacy, as well as to others concerned with child and youth development. It concludes that adolescent murderers are almost all terrified victims of severe child abuse, neglect, and dysfunctional parenting who kill out of desperation. A combination of five interconnected social problems create the conditions for parricide. The youth is raised in a family with drug dependence or other dysfunction; the child is severely abused sexually, physically, and/or verbally; violence in the child's family escalates; the youth becomes increasingly vulnerable to stressors in the home environment; and the child has ready access to a firearm. The two crucial factors are the availability of a firearm and the chemically dependent or otherwise dysfunctional family. Most adolescent parricide offenders can be reintegrated into society through treatment, not imprisonment. Tables, chapter notes, appended data analysis, index, and about 300 references (Publisher summary modified)