Filicide is the act of a parent killing his or her own son or daughter. The term can also be applied to the parent who has committed such an act. The word filicide derives from the Latin word filius meaning "son".

In some cultures, killing a daughter who has disgraced the family is a common occurrence (see honor killing).

A 1999 US Department of Justice Study concluded that between 1976 and 1997 in the US, mothers were responsible for a higher share of children killed during infancy while fathers were more likely to have been responsible for the murders of children age 8 or older. Furthermore, 52% of the children killed by their mothers were male, while 57% of the children killed by their fathers were male.

Sometimes there is a combination of murder and suicide in filicide cases.

Known or suspected filicides

• Marvin Pentz Gay, Sr. (deceased) - Shot his son (singer) Marvin Gaye during an argument in Los Angeles, California, in 1984. He was sent to a rest home for the rest of his life.
• Susan Smith - Drowned her two sons Michael and Alex in a maroon Mazda Protegé in Union, South Carolina, in 1994. She was sentenced to life in prison in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1995.
• Andrea Yates - Drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001, in Clear Lake City, Texas, due to post-partum depression and other mental disorders. She was sentenced to life in prison in Gatesville, Texas in 2002, but the sentence was later overturned.
• Ivan IV of Russia (Ivan the Terrible) - Killed his son and heir to the throne in a rage.
• Ernest I. Jeffries - Killed his infant daughter by slamming her with his raised arm to the floor from a standing position, similar to a football player ‘spiking’ a football.

Filicides in fiction

• Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare - Title character kills his daughter Lavinia. This is an attempt to restore her honor after she was raped, her hands were amputated, and her tongue cut out. Titus previously kills her attackers, marking this play as Shakespeare's most gruesome.
• La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) - This Hispanic American folktale tells of a woman, Maria, whose husband is unfaithful. In her rage, she throws their children into the river, where they are drowned.[1]
• Medea killed her children by Jason in retaliation for being abandoned by him.
• Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigeneia, in Aeschylus' The Oresteia and in Euripides' Iphigeneia at Aulis

Related terms

Compare with child murder (the killing of an unrelated child), prolicide (the killing of offspring), infanticide (intentionally causing the death of an infant), abortion (the killing of a fetus), patricide (the killing of a parent by his or her child), and fratricide and sororicide (the killing of one's sibling). Also consider filial cruelty (cruelty toward one's own child) and child cruelty (cruelty toward an unrelated child).

See also

• Lists of people by cause of death
• Parental oppression
• Near sacrifice of Isaac

External link

• Why juries often spare mothers who kill