Parental Filicide Case Study

There is a broad spectrum of crimes that are committed day to day. When one thinks of murder, parental murder against children is not at the forefront of the mind. Filicide, or the murder of one’s child, is a crime that is common but not mentioned often. About 500 filicide cases happen each year, which has been close to the same number for about a decade (Orenstein, Brown University, 2014). Also according to studies, boys were 58.3 percent more likely to be killed than girls. Looking at statistics from the National Institute of Health, as of 2004 in the US, 311 of 578 (53.8%) children under the age of five were murdered by their parents. From 1976 to 2004, maternal filicide accounted for 30 percent of all children under the age of five while
These methods are most common in infant cases by 69 percent. As the child ages, weapons are more likely to be used by a percentage of 72.3 (Orenstein). Highly publicized cases shine the light on parental mental health and how it can affect children. The reasons or categories for committing filicide include; altruistic filicide, acutely psychotic filicide, unwanted child filicide, accidental filicide, and spousal revenge filicide. The cases that will be discussed in this paper will fall under the altruistic filicide, acutely psychotic filicide, and unwanted child. One case that was highly publicized and brought filicide to the forefront of America’s mind was Andrea Yates. Andrea murdered all five of her children by drowning them in the bathtub in her home. Prior to this incident, Andrea had been in and out of hospitals and mental institutes for depression and psychosis (West). Psychosis is defined as, “disruptions to a person’s thoughts and perceptions that make it difficult for them to recognize what is real and what isn’t. These disruptions are often experienced as seeing, hearing and believing things that aren’t real or having strange,
Diane Staudte poisoned both her husband and son around 2011 and 2012. Diane was an organ player at her church and attended often. They lived in a small house and her husband played in a band. Her husband’s band mate said that he started acting strange and then suddenly died on Easter. Since he wasn’t the healthiest, family and friends believed it could have been a heart attack. Diane quickly had him cremated and then spread his ashes. Shortly after her husband’s death, her son is found dead in his room. He was autistic and had a history of seizures, so his death was blamed on a seizure. About a year later, Diane had to rush her youngest daughter to the emergency room. Speculations are being made that this is too much of a coincidence. The pastor at Diane’s church is suspicious and calls in an anonymous tip to the police that Diane is possibly involved. At this point, they bring her in and question her. After two hours in the interrogation room, Diane finally admits to poisoning them with antifreeze saying, “I regret doing it. I really do. I've screwed up everybody. I've screwed up my whole family" (Staudte, ABC news). Later it is discovered that her 22-year-old daughter Rachel, was also involved after evidence was found written in a diary at their