In the United States about 18% of all homicides are of Parents killing their children. Between 250 and 300 of these murders take place annually. The mothers commit most of these killings. This horrible and disgusting act typically occurs out of revenge. Filicide has been common throughout history. An ancient Greek philosopher and play writer Sophocles wrote apiece on filicide titled Medea. Out of vengeance this sick and twisted woman took the lives of not only her husband and his courter for their transgressions but also the lives of her two beautiful children. Nearly 3 thousand years after the play was written filicide is still common and relevant. Just two years ago in 2012 a NYC mother poisoned her two children leaveing her cheating husband without children to father. She was a normal housewife who no one suspected could commit such an act. Even the twisted Medea was thought incapable of such evil, but like then, today when someone’s emotions are pushed to the brink all rationale disappears replaced by madness and an obsession with vengeance.
Medea’s extreme emotion, which cause...
The love that a parent feels for a child is the most indescribable feeling in the world. Most parents would do anything and everything to protect their children, but not all parents are aware of the danger their child faces. In the short story "Killings," by Andre Dubus, a mother and father are faced with the tragic death of their son. Both parents, although both may not admit to it, believe that the murderer deserves the same consequences their son suffered. Matthew Fowler takes matters into his own hands, and along with his friend, Willis Trottier, kills Richard Strout. The death of Richard Strout should not be tried as a murder, but as a justifiable homicide. Matthew Fowler, the father of Frank Fowler, had every reason to reciprocate Strout's actions. A child should not be taken from a parent in the way that Frank was taken from his.
...ed that between 1976 and 1994 almost 37,000 children had been murdered (Child Victimizers iv). This appalling number would have been timely enough to include in Culture of Fear, a book which was written in 1997. In fact, the Department of
Serial murder, which is defined as “the unlawful killing of two or more victims, by the same offenders, in separate events”(Lubaszka & Shon, 2013, p. 1), is a term that American society has become quite familiar with. At a ripe age, parents begin teaching their children not to talk to strangers in hopes of shielding them from the potential evil our world has to offer, but what if I told you the serial killer may not always be the scary man driving a van and offering candy? Our society, like it does most things, has placed a stigma upon serial killers. Although not all implied labels are untrue, this stigma makes us vulnerable to the hidden deviance lurking behind us, dressed in sheep’s clothing. Over the course of this analysis, I will discuss and elaborate on Christine Lubaszka and Phillip Shon’s work, “The notion of victim selection, risk, and offender behavior in healthcare serial murders”. My evaluation will consists of a thorough description of Lubaszka and Shon’s article, followed by a brief critic explaining how their work relates to other forms of deviance, social control, and the material studied in this course, as well as stating a few of the drawbacks and benefits of the authors’ work and suggestions for future researchers.
Recently in the news paper in the York area an old distance friend of mine Travis Laughman is accused of beating his girlfriends baby Kellen Koller 2. Kellen Koller died at Hershey Medical Center. My first reaction was “I can’t believe this.” “It can’t be him!” I couldn’t come to terms to hear that an old friend of mine was a murder. Many young parents have a hard time with a crying baby. Not be able to get them to stop so frustration sets in. There are many cases where young parents are so overwhelmed and are exhausted and they just click and start to take there anger out of there babies.
One decisions changes your entire life and the lives of others. One decision can create a major difference, but one decision can create major conflict. One decision affects all other decisions. The effects of one decision are present in Antigone by the greek author, Sophocles. The setting of Antigone is the ancient city of Thebes after a battle between Polyneices and Eteocles. During the battle, a great tragedy occurs when Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other. The battle is a result of one decision by Polyneices to conquer Thebes, and his attempt is a utter failure. Polyneices' decision to attack Thebes dramatically alters the future course of Thebes. Polyneices's attack removes Eteocles from power and promotes Creon to power. Creon believes he is acting in the best interest of the state by establishing his power as king of Thebes. Creon's decree preventing any citizen from mourning or burying Polyneices is establishing his authority. Creon creates this edict because of Polyneices' traitorous acts against Thebes. Creon feels this action helps Thebes work to become a better city. The citizens of Thebes are not entirely content with Creon's ruling. One brave person dares to do the right thing, and this person is Antigone, brother of Polyneices. Antigone valiantly acts to see morality prevails over what Creon considers right for the state with the looming possibility of death. Antigone acts courageously, but Creon murders Antigone for her deeds. Antigone puts others and her beliefs above herself. Antigone experiences true tragedy. In Antigone, Antigone garners more sympathy and fear than Creon because of her devotion to divine law, loyalty to family, and defiance of Creon in the face of death.
Infanticide is a way to alter the reproductive stream before the child has the status of a real person, which is culturally defined (source). The deaths of weak, illegitimate, excess, deformed and unwanted infants are not defined as murder when the infants have not yet been born into the social world. Infanticide occurs cross-culturally for a multitude of causes. The reasons for infanticide can be summed up into three categories: biological (including the health of the child and twin stigmas), economical (relation to other children, women's workload, and available resources) and cultural (preferred gender, illegitimate children). This essay will examine cross-culturally the biological, economic and cultural factors for infanticide.
As children, we grow up and learn that murder is wrong, but it is still done every day.
Maker, J., Brittain, J., Piraino, G., & Somtow, S. Children Who Kill. World Press Review. June 1993 v40 n6 p21-23.
Some of the perpetrators are the caregivers to spouses who are chronically ill. Another involves marriage, lovers who have lived together for many years. The main question, which remains unanswered is “why can some wake up one morning and decide to take away another person’s life”. According to Chermack & Taylor (1995), most of the perpetrators are usually mentally ill and challenged with extreme psychological problems. They may be suffering from strong stress and depressive disorder that affects their perception and feelings towards life. Although these people face blame for their undesirable actions, it is beneficial to make an effort to understand their problem (Kaukinen, 2002). Solving their alarming problem would significantly reduce the crime rates in the society and encourage the realization of a better environment.
Wolff, Sula and Alexander McCall Smith. Children who kill: They can and should be reclaimed.
Robert V. Heckel, D. M. (2001). Children Who Murder: A Psychological Prespective. Westport: Praeger Publishers.
To begin with, numerous reasons for why a child acts in the manner he exhibits and why he continues to exert such dangerous and even fatal schemes. Recent research shows that factors ranging from inherited personality traits to chemical imbalances and damages suffered in the womb can increase the odds that a child will become violent (Johnson 234). Experts argue that no one is predestined to a life of crime. They believe that influences such as repeated abuse, extreme neglect, poverty, media violence, and easy access to guns play the major role in molding children into criminals. The father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer wonders, "If potential for evil is in the blood that some of us pass on to our children" (Seifert 23).
Aristotle (384-322 B.C. believed that tragedy, as an imitation or mimesis of life as it could be, held more importance than history, which simply records the past. He considered that performance of a tragedy provided the perfect cathartic experience for an audience, leaving them spiritually purified and inspired. He felt spectators seeing and experiencing great hardship befall the play’s hero or heroine would achieve this emotional state and benefit from it.
According to the UNICEF report in just 2006, studies disclosed that 10 million young girls were killed either before they were born or promptly after by their parents in the year of 1986 (which is not that long ago if you put that number into perspective). But why would anyone want to deliberately kill an innocent soul, let alone their own child? Female Infanticide and Gendercide is defined as the conscious killing of female, newborn babies which can happen from getting killed by their own blood or by an abortion. Even though acts as these are illegal, we still see this is a persistent problem today mainly in the cultures of China and India.
85 year old Anna Bracket living alone in a condominium complex opened her door letting into her home to girls ages 14 & 15 who stabbed her 28 times because they wanted to steal her car. The reason I used a little bit of this article is because usually our first thought is “why” a kid would commits such a horrific act and “what” drove them to do it.