Parents Who Kill Their Children

Abstract

The annual incidence of filicide by mothers and fathers in England and Wales leads to discussion on classification of the killers, with particular emphasis on the difficulties associated with the criteria of motive and depression. A modified classification is suggested and applied to the cohort made available by Morris and Blom-Cooper (1964). The origin of the stimulus to kill (whether arising in the child, or displaced from elsewhere onto the child) may be a useful alternative to motive as a criterion for filicide.