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Abstract
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The deaths of children, killed by a parent, stepparent, or equivalent guardian, termed filicide, are tragedies. They bring the lives of children killed to a premature end and traumatize the surviving family members and the wider community. When they happen, they prompt many questions, questions about why they have occurred and what might have been done to prevent them.
Research is grappling with these questions, trying to shed light on incidence, on the circumstances surrounding the children's deaths, and the factors associated with the victims and the perpetrators. In the first Cross Disciplinary International Filicide Research Conference, Professor Frans Koenradt (Conference Report, 2013) pointed out that filicide is a universal but not a uniform phenomenon. It varies from country to country, influenced by the culture of a country, its governmental structure, its legal structure, and its health and welfare services structure.
Even within a country, differences arise. Australian research (Brown et al., 2019) has shown differences from one state to another. For example, the state with the highest incidence, (Queensland), has almost double the incidence of the state with the lowest, (Western Australia). Furthermore, differences among the types of perpetrators have been found. While nationally biological mothers and fathers were almost equally perpetrators, in one state mothers far outnumbered fathers.
Thus, filicide needs to be investigated in every nation and even in every region. While research in one country enlightens understanding of filicide in all countries, each country has some differences in victims and perpetrators and in the causal factors associated with them. The research presented in this collection comes from four countries, Australia, Ghana, Malaysia, and Sweden. The articles highlight problems in each country and confirm the need to conduct national studies but also show cross national findings...
Language: en |