Parricidal Familicide (IN: The Varieties of Homicide and its Research. Proceedings of the 1999 Meeting of the Homicide Research Working Group, edited by P H Blackman)

This paper examines parricidal familicide, or familicide committed by nonpatriarchal young-adult males. Using 4 Texas cases, classes of parricidal familicide, motivational factors, & types of offenders, by relation, are examined. First, cases are broadly categorized as spontanteous or planned. Next, they are distinguished by motive, whether expressive or instrumental. Finally, the offender’s relationship to family members is shown to not only inform the motive but also to influence the manner in which the victims are slain. The perpetrator completed suicide in only 1 of the 4 cases discussed in this paper. (24 refs.)