A Psychiatric Review on Filicide

Korean J Leg Med. 2011 May;35(1):7-15. Korean.

Department of Psychiatry, Sung-il Mental Hospital, Namwon, Korea

Mental Health & Behavioral Medicine Services for Clinical Departments, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea. retrial3@hanmail.net

Background/Aims: Filicide, the murder of a child by his or her own parent, is a multifaceted phenomenon with diverse causes and characteristics. This study aimed to review the present state of knowledge regarding demographic, psychosocial, clinical, and legal characteristics of filicide. Methods: Domestic and International database were systematically searched with keyword of “filicide” for studies published until October, 2010, in English or Korean. Of the 107 searched articles, those that were overlapped in contents or out of the scope of this review were excluded. Finally, total 88 literatures were included in this review. Results: The characteristics of the parents who committed filicide varied greatly by the type of the sample enrolled in studies. The results of the review suggested that little is known about the factors that confer victimization risk to children. The legal punishment was also different by nations. Conclusion: Given the range of capability of filicide, mental health professionals should be alert to the possibility of filicide in a variety of parents. A systematic and more focused research to elucidate reliable predictors of filicide is needed to better prevent these tragic events.

Key words : filicide, characteristics, prevention

Review article