Synonyms
Definition
Filicide is defined as the deliberate act of a parent, stepparent, or parental figure killing their own child. Subcategories of filicide include neonaticide, when the child is killed within the first 24 h of its life by his or her parents, and infant homicide (sometimes infanticide), although in some countries the term “infanticide” only applies to the mother and has medicolegal implications.
Introduction
Filicide is a multifaceted phenomenon with various causes and characteristics (Bourget et al. 2007). It was first studied from an evolutionary perspective by Daly and Wilson in the 1980s and 1990s. As early as 1985, links were found between child abuse and the child not living with both parents. This led to an investigation of filicide, which looked at the differences between genetic parents and stepparents. Studies have shown that children are more likely to be killed by their...
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References
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Bourget, D., Grace, J., & Whitehurst, L. (2007). A review of maternal and paternal filicide. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 35(1), 74–82.
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Horsford, S. (2021). Sex Differences in Death by Filicide. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_3734
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_3734
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