Letters to the Editor
Sex of the Offender, Sex of the Victim, and Motivation in Filicidal Situations in Quebec
Dear Editor:
Some studies on filicide look for an association between the sex of the victims and that of the offender. Results are contradictory: Rodenburg found that fathers are more likely to kill boys and mothers to kill girls (1); Silverman and Kennedy confirmed only that fathers are more likely to kill boys (2); and Marks and Kumar found no association between the sex of the victim and that of the aggressor (3). In 1999 Marleau and Laporte suggested that an association exists between the sex of the offender, the sex of the victim(s), and the type of motivation (4).
To gain a better view of this potential association, we obtained a sample of all women and men in the province of Quebec identified by the authorities as having killed at least 1 biological child between 1986 and 1994 (n = 75 parents: 39 women and 36 men). For the final analysis, we retained only the parents who killed 1 child or 2 children of the same sex (n = 59). We used a backward conditional logistic regression to determine whether the sex of the offender, the motivation (others or altruism), the age of the victim (0 to 2 years or 3 to 18 years), and the method of killing (soft methods or brutal methods) predicted the sex of the victim(s). In the final model, only the motivation and the method of killing were important. Parents who killed their children for altruistic reasons were 5 times more likely to kill a girl than a boy (P = 0.02; odds ratio 5.48; 95%CI 1.30 to 20.15). The method of killing is marginally significant and indicates that those who used more brutal methods were nearly 3 times more likely to kill a girl than a boy (P = 0.09; odds ratio 2.96; 95%CI 0.83 to 10.63). In a separate model, we also used a logistic regression to consider interactions between the sex of the offender and the independent variables used for predicting the sex of the victim; we found no interactions.
Our results show that both mothers and fathers are more likely to kill a girl than a boy for altruistic reasons. This runs counter to the hypothesis proposed by Marleau and Laporte (4), who suggested that this is only the case for mothers. However, it is important to note that fathers rarely kill their children for altruistic reasons. The method of killing was found to be marginally significant, which does not support the idea that parents who kill male children use more brutal methods.
Further research is needed to separately analyze aggressors with and without psychosis. Lewis and Bunce showed that the sex of the victim did not vary for filicidal mothers suffering from psychosis (5). A possible association between the sex of the offender, the sex of the victim, and the motivation may exist only for mothers and fathers without psychosis.
References
1. Rodenburg M. Child murder by depressed parents. Can Psychiatr Assoc J 1971;16:41–8.
2. Silverman R, Kennedy L. Deadly deeds: murder in Canada. Toronto (ON): Nelson Canada; 1993.
3. Marks MN, Kumar R. Infanticide in England and Wales. Med Sci Law 1993;33:329–39.
4. Marleau JD, Laporte L. Gender of Victims and motivation of filicidal parents: is there a relationship? Can J Psychiatry 1999;44:924–5.
5. Lewis CF, Bunce SC. Filicidal mothers and the impact of psychosis on maternal filicide. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2003;31:459–70.
Stacy Tzoumakis, BA,
Myriam Dubé, PhD ,
Jacques D Marleau, PhD
Montreal, Quebec
Suzanne Léveillée, PhD
Trois-Rivieres, Quebec
|
