ABSTRACT
The suicidal nature of domestic homicide has been noted in the literature in which some victims are believed to “so aggressively provoke violence toward themselves by a family member that they can be viewed as suicides.” Familicide, or the killing of most or all of one’s family, is relatively rare compared with other domestic homicides. There are no national statistics on familicide; however, the killing of family in American history has been documented. Familicide is committed primarily by adult males, and often ends up with suicide by the perpetrator. Filicide—the killing of one’s child—is perhaps the saddest form of intrafamilial homicide. According to the Justice Department, in 2010 there were 453 murders in which the victims were identified as sons or daughters of the perpetrator in the United States. In a Department of Justice survey of homicides in urban counties, 1.5 percent were sibling-perpetrated homicides.
