Parricide Social Phenomenon

Parricide: The Social Phenomena Parricide is defined as the murder of a parent where the child is the perpetrator. It can be extended to other close relatives, such as an uncle or grandparent, and broken into even smaller categories of matricide and patricide. Family is important all around the world, so killing a parent is seen as social taboo for most cultures. In the modern era, few things are agreed upon by different people, much less nations and countries. The consensus that parricide is massively disturbing has quickly rocketed it to many various researcher’s attention and fascinated communities across the globe. Punishment has been disputed between taking responsibility for one’s actions and being lenient, assuming it was a case where

Yet, abused children often continue the cycle and become abusers. Exceptions are inevitable, but most parricide offenders are too unstable and mentally changed from their experiences to recover from their malicious and abusive state of mind, even with extensive therapy and rehabilitation. Parricide is rare when compared to homicides. Hillbrand and Cipriano explain that only twenty-five percent of murders are parricides (313). Yet, looking at just cases of parricide, most of the offenders were abused either sexually, verbally, physically or psychologically (Heide). Abused children, in general, do not usually commit parricide (Malmquist 73-9). However, even the children that do not kill their parents or family members suffer from long lasting effects of the abuse from their youth. Kathleen Heide reviewed a sample of parricide offenders who were interviewed for different purposes and found that in a total of six cases, all of them were physically neglected and five were physically abused. Spouse abuse was present in four cases, which was a precursor to the children’s abuse. Often, children that have endured maltreatment become angry and turn into an abuser themselves. The cycle constantly happens and numerous

Nonetheless, the result is still inevitably the same. Psychotic motives are similar in matricides and patricides according to a study in Canada. Matricide could even be a sign of a male dependency and discomfort in their stereotypical role (Bourget, Gagne, and Labelle 306-12). Some people might think that there would be differences in male and female responses to abuse and maltreatment; however, there is not substantial statistical evidence that contrasts the genders. There are some differences in methods. Matricide tends to be committed by the use of a blunt instrument, while patricide typically follows the means of knives (Bourget, Gagne, and Labelle 306-12). The majority of the other circumstances, including motive and mental health, are similar in both sexes. The most likely reason for committing the murder is because the offenders are usually mentally ill or perverted from their continuous and frequent history of being mistreated. The murders are usually acted out because the child feels threatened and uncomfortable in their home or various mental illnesses cause them to be irrational. They are typically not crimes of passion, although the bodies end up mutilated in most cases. The disfigurement is the result of a child relieving themselves from the shame and humiliation they have endured from one or both of their parents. They would not feel completely safe or free from the