Citation

Leveillee S, Lefebvre J, Vaillancourt JP. Evol. Psychiatr. (Paris) 2010; 75(1): 77-91.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.evopsy.2009.12.001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Parricide is defined as the homicide of a father or mother by a biological or adopted child. Main studies on this type of homicide focus on motivations to commit the parricide and on sociodemographic, crime-associated, and situational variables. Authors indicate that many individuals who committed parricide had a psychiatric history and presented a psychotic disorder. The majority of these studies have been conducted within forensic settings. This study objective is to draw up the descriptive profile of every parricide cases indexed by the Bureau du Coroner en Chef du Québec (Canada) between 1990 and 2003 from descriptive variables and motivations underlying the parricide. Results indicate that the majority of parricides were unemployed and were living with their parents. Many of them used excessive violence (overkill) during the killing and one third consulted a mental health professional before the parricide. Mental state (psychotic or mood disorder) and anger (following an argument) motivations were highly represented within parricide cases. Notions of proximity with the victim and of autonomy appear to be relevant to the understanding of parricide. Finally, it seems to have two sub-groups of parricides.