User Contributed Dictionary
Noun
Usage notes
Infanticide the the usual English term, especially if the victim is at or near infancy. Filicide implies specifically the killing of one's own son or daughter, especially biological and if the victim lived past infancy.See also
Extensive Definition
Filicide is the deliberate act of a parent
killing his or her own son or daughter. The term can also be
applied to the parent who has committed such an act. The word
filicide derives from the Latin word filius
meaning "son".
In some cultures, killing a daughter who is
deemed to have disgraced the family is a common occurrence (see
honor
killing).
A 1999 US Department of
Justice Study concluded that between 1976 and 1997 in the
U.S.,
mothers were responsible for a higher share of children killed
during infancy while fathers were more likely to have been
responsible for the murders of children age 8 or older.
Furthermore, 52% of the children killed by their mothers were male
(maternal filicide), while 57% of the children killed by their
fathers were male (paternal filicide).
Sometimes there is a combination of
murder and suicide in filicide cases.
Psychology
- ''See also Infanticide Explanations For the Practice
A number of academics attribute it, both modern
and historical, to psychological inability to raise children.
Contemporary data suggests that modern filicide is sometimes
brought about by a psychological unreadiness to raise children. It
could also be exacerbated by schizophrenia or bipolar
disorder. It is also attributed, in some cases, to the desire
of unwed, underage parents to conceal their sexual relations and/or
avoid the responsibility of childrearing. It is attributed in other
cases to a strong feeling of alienation or genetic disaffection; in
such cases other children are not thought to be at risk and the
mother often takes on a new role in child care .
Known or suspected filicides
- Karen McCarron is suspected of smothering her three-year-old autistic daughter, Katie.
- Lucius Sergius Catilina, the notorious Roman insurrectionist was said to have murdered his only son to persuade Aurelia Orestilla to marry him.
- Neil Entwistle - Was charged in the January 2006 killing of his baby daughter Lillian in Hopkinton, MA - (infanticide).
- Marvin Pentz Gaye, Sr. shot his son, singer Marvin Gaye, during an argument in Los Angeles, California, in 1984. He was sent to a rest home for the rest of his life.
- Susan Smith drowned her two sons Michael and Alex in a maroon Mazda Protegé in Union, South Carolina, in 1994. She was sentenced to life in prison in Union, South Carolina, in 1995.
- Andrea Yates - Drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001, in Clear Lake City, Texas, due to postpartum depression and other mental disorders. She was sentenced to life in prison in Gatesville, Texas in 2002, but the sentence was later overturned and was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She is now committed to a mental hospital.
- Bradford Bishop bludgeoned his three children, spouse and mother to death in 1976. He was indicted for murders and remains at large.
- Debora Green burned two of her three children to death in an arson attack, out of fear she would lose custody of them to her estranged husband Michael Farrar. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
- Ivan IV of Russia (Ivan the Terrible) killed his son and heir to the throne in a fit of rage.
- Peter the Great of Russia had his son tortured to death, being present at several of the torture sessions and allegedly participating in some of them.
- Ronald Clark O'Bryan poisoned his son on Halloween 1974 with cyanide-laced candy for $20,000 of life insurance money. Executed in 1984.
- John Emil List murdered his three children, mother and his wife on November 9, 1971. He was a fugitive for 18 years. He was apprehended on June 1, 1989 after an episode of America's Most Wanted aired. On May 1, 1990 he was sentenced to 5 life terms in prison.
- Sharon Amos, a prominent member of the Peoples Temple church in Guyana (who was not present at Jonestown, but rather at Guyana headquarters in Georgetown) slit the throats of her two children and then herself after hearing the news of mass suicide from Jonestown over the ham radio.
- Jozsef Barsi. On July 25, 1988 child actress Judith Barsi's father entered her bedroom and shot her in her head. Judith's mother heard the gunshot and came running down the hall where she was met by her father; he then shot his wife. He then drenched the bodies in gasoline and set the house on fire before finally shooting himself in the garage.
- Josef and Magda Goebbels poisoned their six children before committing suicide.
- Yeongjo, king of Korea (r. 1724-1776), ordered the death of his son, Crown Prince Sado, in 1767. The crown prince had murdered people within the royal palace and was most likely mentally ill. He obeyed his father’s order to climb into a rice chest, where he subsequently suffocated to death.
- Selim I, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1512-1520), had all possible competitors for the sultanate assassinated, including two of his brothers, his nephews, and all of his sons but one, Suleiman I.
- Ptolemy XII of Egypt had his daughter Berenice IV and her husband beheaded in 55 BC. This was after she had dethroned him and poisoned her sister, Cleopatra VI.
- Dena Schlosser murdered her young daughter by cutting off both of her arms with a kitchen knife because "God told [her] to".
- Diane Downs shot her three children in Oregon and shot herself in the arm. She claimed a bushy haired man shot her and her kids. Her story was made into a book written by Ann Rule and movie titled Small Sacrifices starring Farrah Fawcett
- Mark O. Barton killed several family members including his own children before going on a shooting spree and committing suicide
- Professional wrestler Chris Benoit killed his seven year old son Daniel, along with his wife and himself, on June 23, 2007.
- In 2003, Manuel Gehring of Concord, New Hampshire shot and killed his two children-- Sarah, 14, and Philip, 11-- before driving cross-country to California, where he was arrested, and burying them along the way. Manuel hung himself in prison awaiting trial in early 2004, and the bodies were recovered in Ohio in late 2005. His motives were unknown. http://www.philipandsarah.com/
- Robert Latimer killed his daughter Tracy on October 24, 1993, claiming it was to end her pain of being a quadraplegic with cerebral palsy.
- In June 6, 1996, Darlie Routier murdered her two sons, Damon and Devon. Both boys were stabbed in their Rowlett, Texas home. Routier suffered self-inflicted wounds. Routier is currently serving life without parole.
- Muhammad Parvez killed his daughter, Aqsa Parvez, on December 10, 2007, because of her refusal to wear a hijab outside her home.
- Chizuko Okamoto was convicted of the October 2005 killing her daughter, and she was suspected of four others of her three children and her stepson.
- Anna Maria Franzoni killed her son Samuele Lorenzi in their home in Cogne Italy
Filicides in myth and fiction
- In the PS2 God of War (video game) series, Kratos is tricked, by Ares, previous god of war, in the series, into killing his own child and his wife. Kratos decides to get back at Ares for doing so, as well as for what Ares did to Athens.
- In the PS2 sequel to God of War (video game), God of War II, Zeus, attempts to kill Kratos, who at the end of the game is revealed to be Zeus's son. Although this merely counts as attempted filicide, due to Kratos' release from the grips of Hades (The Greek god of the Underworld).
- Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare - Title character kills his daughter Lavinia. This is an attempt to restore her honor after she was raped, her hands were amputated, and her tongue cut out. Titus previously kills her attackers (then apparently puts pieces of the men's dead bodies into a pie that he serves their mother), marking this play as Shakespeare's most gruesome.
- La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) - This Hispanic American folktale tells of a woman, Maria, whose husband is unfaithful. In her rage, she throws their children into the river, where they are drowned.http://www.bookfinder.us/review3/0938317024.html
- In the Medea of Euripides, Medea kills her children, in retaliation for being abandoned by her husband, Jason.
- In The Bacchae, also by Euripides, Agave kills her son Pentheus while possessed by Dionysus.
- Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigeneia, to the goddess Artemis in Aeschylus' The Oresteia and in Euripides' Iphigeneia at Aulis.
- Orchamus, a king in Greek mythology ordered his daughter Leucothea buried alive upon learning that she was in love with Apollo.
- In the HBO series Oz, white supremacist Schillinger has his son killed by providing him with poisoned narcotics while he is in solitary confinement.
- In the video game Castlevania, a witch named Actrise relishes the memory of sacrificing her child to the Devil in return for eternal life.
- In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, Cuchulainn unwittingly kills his son Conlaoch when Conlaoch arrives in Ulster and, under a geis from his mother, the warrior queen Aoife, refuses to give his name to the king. Cuchulainn recognizes his son by a golden ring only after he inflicts a mortal wound with his magical spear, the Gae Bolga.
- In the 1990 film The Grifters, con artist Lilly Dillon unintentionally kills her son while trying to take his money.
- In Beloved, Sethe kills her daughter Beloved to save her from being returned to slavery.
- Hercules of Greek Mythology killed his wife and children in a fit of rage induced by Hera
- In the FOX Network show Justice, a woman is tried and convicted of shooting her son, who threatened to reveal the mother's drug dealing business.
- In the FOX Network show 24, Graem Bauer (Paul McCrane) is killed by his father, Phillip Bauer (James Cromwell) before he can reveal Phillip's involvement in the nuclear attacks against America in Season 6.
- In the V.C. Andrews novel Flowers in the Attic, Corrine kills her young son Cory and then tries to kill her other children (including main character Cathy) with aresnic in order to get her parents' inheritance.
- The 2007 film Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ends with a scene in which the character played by Albert Finney smothers his son (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) with a pillow after Hoffman's character confesses that he was responsible for the botched robbery that resulted in his mother's death.
Related terms
- Prolicide is the killing of offspring.
- Infanticide is the killing of an infant from birth to 12 months.
- Patricide and matricide are the converse of filicide: the killing of a parent by his or her child.
- Fratricide and sororicide refer to the killing of one's sibling.
- Regicide is the killing of a king or ruler.
- Tyrannicide is the killing of a tyrant.
- Homicide is the killing of a human.
- Genocide is the killing of an ethnic, religious or national group.
- Ecocide is the damaging of the ecosystem
- Suicide is the killing of oneself.
- Deicide is the killing of a god.
- Uxoricide is the killing of one's wife.
Also consider filial
cruelty (cruelty toward one's own child), child
cruelty (cruelty toward an unrelated child), and child murder
(the murder of a child in general).
External links
filicide in Spanish: Filicidio
filicide in Japanese: 子殺し