School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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Item"You can't let your children cry": filicide in Victoria 1978-1988( 1991)Child killers, particularly when the perpetrators are the victims' parents, are stereotypically portrayed as "evil" or "crazy" (Wilson,1985:6). Who other than the "mad" or the very "bad" could slaughter their "innocent" offspring? But are these offenders really so aberrant? The social perception of, and response to, these offenders is largely determined by the offenders' sex. In fact, biological determinism is particularly profound in this area. This is a qualitative study of all officially suspected cases of filicide in Victoria between 1978 and 1988. "Filicide" is a particular type of homicide where parents kill their children. The major focus is a gender analysis. In order to identify the relevant issues, and assess the results of this study with other research in this area, a review of the existing literature is necessary. Contemporary official statistics portray filicide as constituting a relatively small proportion of all homicide in Western societies. This ranges from five percent in North America (Resnick,1969:325;Husain & Daniel,1984:596) to ten percent in England (Campion, Cravens & Covan,1988:1143), and eleven percent in Victoria (Polk & Ranson,1989:12). However, the actual incidence of filicide is elusive due to undetected and unreported cases and forensic problems associated with filicide detection. In fact, filicide may be less likely to be detected than other forms of homicide. These issues are discussed in detail in the Methodology chapter. As filicide forms only a small proportion of detected homicides, this may account for its relative neglect in homicide studies. Filicide is nevertheless a significant problem. It demonstrates the darker side of our culture, as does its social response. (From Introduction)