Familicide is defined as one family member who murders other members of their family, commonly taking the lives of all. It is most often used to describe cases where a parent, usually the father, kills his wife and children and then himself.
Familicide is commonly intertwined with the term ‘family annihilator’ stemming from the act itself, that of family annihilation. Most researchers agree that this act is a form of mass murder due to the multiple victims involved.
Criminologists have been conducting increasing research into the phenomenon of familicide and in the process have produced many terms and definitions to describe such acts and distinguish them from each other. Familicide, the family annihilator, murder-suicides, and family murders are all terms that have been used to describe cases where a family member has killed other family members.
The varied definitions of the term ‘familicide’ can make a comparison of studies and cases challenging. Familicide sits among a number of types of family murder, all utilising the term ‘cide‘ which means ‘the act of killing‘ in Latin, often adding to the confusion over terminology.
Matricide – the killing of one’s mother
Patricide – the killing of one’s father
Siblicide – the killing of one’s sibling
Fratricide – the killing of one’s brother
Sororicide – the killing of one’s sister
Filicide – the killing of one’s child
Uxoricide – the killing of one’s wife
Parricide – the killing of one’s parents
Statistics suggest that a child is more likely to be killed by a parent than by a stranger, and in most cases, the killer takes his own life after the act.
A research study published in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice in 2013 by Elizabeth Yardley, David Wilson, and Adam Lynes has been particularly influential in this field. They analyzed newspaper articles over three decades from 1980 to 2012 where cases of familicide were reported. They found a total of 71 cases where 59 of the perpetrators were male and over half were between the ages of 30-40 years old when they committed the crime. Yardley, Wilson, and Lynes reported that 57% of cases they studied occurred inside the family home compared to 17% in an isolated country spot no doubt pre-selected by the offender. In 32% of cases, the method of killing was stabbing followed by 15% of cases involving carbon monoxide poisoning from a car exhaust. Most offenders were employed and aged between 30 and 39 years old at the time of the murders. In 68% of cases, the male annihilator committed suicide after the murders.
In contrast to other groups, such as serial killers and mass murderers, these were found to be individuals with good backgrounds. They were not known to the police or the criminal justice system; they often had good jobs, families, and friends around them. They can be very successful people in their lives and not the kind of people who it is perceived would kill anyone never mind their entire family.