A psychosocial analysis of child homicide

Abstract

Child homicide has been a key influence on childcare policy and practice over the last three decades, with a particular focus on the assessment, management and monitoring of situations where children are at risk and on associated inter-agency working. A psychosocial analysis of the pre-offence experiences of 68 adults (mostly parents or carers) who killed or attempted to kill a child identified complex, intricate and heterogeneous processes in respect of their interpersonal relationships, stress and mental health and the relationship of these factors to the offence. These findings indicate that the current policy and practice focus upon procedures and performance in safeguarding children may not address successfully the complex needs of those adults who may pose a risk to children. It is suggested that appropriate therapeutic services should be more readily available. Key words

Child homicide: generating victim and suspect risk profiles

“…Indeed, Daly and Wilson (1998) report in their findings of a study of child homicide that young children are 100 hundred times more likely to be killed by a step-parent. The most likely cause of death of young children has consistently been found to be asphyxiation (Cavanagh, Emerson Dobash and Dobash, 2007), neglect (Silverman & Kennedy, 1988), and shaken-baby syndrome whereby the violent shaking of the child causes fatal head injuries (Stroud, 2008). The main circumstance of the killing being 'parental stress' and 'child abuse' (Cavanagh, Emerson Dobash and Dobash, 1997).…”

An Abominable Crime: Filicide in the Context of Parental Separation and Divorce

“…Due to the excessively narrow scope of the studies, their small sample sizes and their biased sample selection, such studies have produced contradictory findings and brought confusion to the problem (Strang, 1996;Stroud, 2008). Moreover, while some find that parental separation and divorce is a possible factor, mostly in relation to filicide perpetrated by the father, the remainder do not consider this factor as they are wedded to other theories of causation.…”

“…Valuable new thinking on understanding filicide has been developed using a psycho-social research framework that combines a quantitative analysis of data of incidence and characteristics of perpetrators with a qualitative analysis of the precursors or psycho-social antecedents to the events in relation to the perpetrator and their families (Stroud, 2008;Stroud & Pritchard, 2001). This work used data from individuals who had been charged with filicide and where a forensic psychological assessment had been carried out.…”

“…The notion of a stressful interaction within families, and between family members and community services, as suggested by Stroud (2008) may underpin the number of high profile filicides that have occurred in response to family court litigation over care of the children of the relationship post-separation in Australia and New Zealand (e.g. the 1994 case of Alan Bristol who killed his three children, then himself, after a custody battle in the New Zealand Family Court; Riddell, 2008).…”

“…The planned approach to researching the events and circumstances leading to the deaths was a qualitatively driven mixed-method approach which draws on the tradition known as a 'psycho-social approach' (Stroud, 2008). The idea of the study was to consider the social context of such deaths in terms of the characteristics of the victim(s), perpetrator(s) and the family's circumstances and their interactions (or lack of interactions) with family, friends, and the wider community including any socio-legal-support services they may have accessed.…”