Killing your children to hurt your partner: A South African perspective on the motivations for revenge filicide.

  • Published In: Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling, 2023, v. 20, n. 1. P. 33 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Moen, Melanie; Bezuidenhout, Christiaan 3 of 3

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the offence characteristics and motivations for revenge filicides. Revenge filicide is an act where one parent kills their own offspring for retribution to hurt and upset the other parent. The cases of 20 revenge filicide murderers (14 male and six female) were analysed to determine the motivations and offence characteristics of revenge filicide offenders. It is the first South African study to highlight the motivations and associated characteristics in revenge filicides. Themes such as a loss of social identity due to rejection; extreme rage type anger; external locus of control; sadism; a desire to cause pain and a need to inflict harm are highlighted in this article. The initial emotional response may escalate from mild anger to a level of narcissistic rage which eventually culminates in the murdering of the child to punish and hurt the other parent and to restore control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling. 2023/01, Vol. 20, Issue 1, p33
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Law
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:1544-4759
  • DOI:10.1002/jip.1603
  • Accession Number:161085582
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Looking to go deeper into this topic? Look for more articles on EBSCOhost.