Filicide Case Study

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Filicide cases have been around for an extensive amount of time. Although many parents love their child and would never hurt them, others might tremendously. Filicide cases have been rising due to mental illnesses and money loss, parents on the lower social classes is the majority of filicide cases due to frustration. The most common age group to be targeted is children under six. Although there might be different motives for parents that is causing these cases to rise, it still doesn’t explain why a human being would do such a horrific act. Parents have different motives on how they kill their child, but why do they kill themselves after? One of the explanations could be that they might think that the child can’t live without them, causing …show more content…

The five different reasons are altruism, acute psychosis, unwanted child, accidental, and spousal revenge. Psychiatrist Philip J. talks about the meanings of each reasons saying, “the parents are often mentally ill, they usually have higher levels of testosterone and the offspring that they kill may be considered unwanted”(Doug). Many cases that have been studied show evidence that parents mental illnesses has contributes to an important factor of filicide cases. Out of these top five cases, the most common is altruism, stating that, “The parent kills the child because he or she may perceive it to be in the child's best interest”(Doug). Psychiatrist have analyzed that altruism is one of the top cases of filicides due to parents believing that they're doing what's best for the child. The parents had an act of selfishness and although they believe that they're doing this for their child's own good, it's only a barrier to their mind knowing they're doing it for their own beneficial …show more content…

This would help save children from being murdered by their parents and create a safer environment for them. According to the article of NCBI, it states, “Acts of 1922 and 1938 in England laws recognized the effect that birthing and caring for an infant can have on a mother's mental health for up to 12 months after the event. These acts outlawed the death penalty as punishment for maternal infanticide, making the punishment similar to that of manslaughter. Several other Western countries have adopted similar laws, with the exception of the United States”(West). Many filicides is spread out through different countries making laws that are only available to only a few countries, making a limited impact. These laws have proven to make at least a ten percent effort in helping to keep children safe. Although this is a minor difference psychiatrist still help incredibly by talking and helping them and by knowing the causes and effects stating that, “In any case, increased understanding of psychopathology in understanding filicide can only help” (Dumalaon). With psychiatrist having this vast information it can help them determine the cases of different filicides and also help stop it before it's too late. Knowing what

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