Study Reveals Why Some Parents Kill their Children

Ireyimika Oyegbami

One would think that with the rising rate of cases involving people buying babies in Nigeria and elsewhere coupled with the long waiting list of those applying to adopt a child in countries like the United States of America, children, everywhere in the world, are such prized possessions that they would be treated like royalty by their custodians. This is not so in all cases as several disturbing reports of parents who actually go to the extent of killing their own children have proved.

The act of killing a child who is under the age of 18 is termed ‘filicide’ and is regarded in most countries of the world to be a grievous and punishable crime. In an extensive study, homicide expert and sociologist Myrna Dawson of the University of Guelph in Ontario examined half a century worth of filicide data from the Canadian archives and has gone on to publish her findings in a journal, Yahoo Parenting reports.

A previous study had looked at data published in USA back in 2014 on the same topic. There was a concession that on an average, 450 children are killed every year by their parents. After North-eastern University criminologists applied statistical models to the records, the newspaper found several patterns in the crimes:
• Most of the children killed are less than a year old.
• Three out of four victims are younger than 5.
• Nearly half of all victims died from beatings.
• Fathers are more likely to kill than mothers.
• Mothers often kill their victims in infancy.

Dawson who wished to better understand why such crimes happen with the aim of preventing more in the future through her detailed study, further provides these useful specifics on filicide:

• There appears to be an increasing trend of males being accused of the crime nationwide; as against females.
• Women made up four out of five of the alleged killers who were single and had never married.
• Men represented two-thirds of accused who were divorced, separated, or widowed.
• More men than women were accused when revenge or jealousy was the motive.
• Fathers are more likely than mothers to commit suicide after killing a child.
• Most accused, overall, were the victim’s biological parents.
• In the instances where the stepchildren were killed, 9 out of 10 accused were the stepfathers.
• Incidences of stepfathers killing their stepchildren appear to be on the upswing of recent.
The researcher who set out to understand the differences between fathers and mothers who kill their children by examining everything from the parent’s gender, age, and marital status to possible motives, including histories of domestic violence, seeking patterns and trends in order to help figure out strategies for prevention; expressed her views on the link between the collapsing family structure and recorded cases of filicide.

“I was concerned to find what appears to be an emerging trend in the role played by relationship breakdown and family violence in these cases. We need more public and professional awareness about these contributors so families at risk may be identified earlier. More collaboration and communication between family and criminal courts that may be dealing with these families is also crucial,” she said.

Dawson also believes that the shifting, equalizing gender roles in terms of childcare may be a contributing factor in driving up the number of dads who kill.

“It is believed that fathers spend more time with children than in the past, arguably increasing their (the children’s) time at risk.”

Although mental illness is commonly thought to be a major precursor or motivation for filicide, particularly here in Nigeria, the researcher says,

“Some research shows that many of the cases do not include mental illness as an element. However, other work has shown that a significant proportion of both mothers and fathers were experiencing some type of mental illness or episode.”

Although the issue of parents killing their children is sure to leave a sour taste in the mouth, and many would be quick to deny its existence, nonetheless, parents should endeavor to examine the findings of this research and become more committed to keeping their children safe and alive, come what may.