ABSTRACT
Parricide is a rare variant of intrafamilial violence that describes the slaying of one or both parents by a biological child. The majority of existing parricide studies involve a single victim and single offender, and parricide research involving multiple victims (or multiple offenders) has garnered little attention. In addition, prior research indicates that the typical parricide offender is an adult; therefore, research focusing on juvenile involvement in parricide has been somewhat limited. This chapter focuses on parricide incidents with juvenile offenders involving multiple victims (hereinafter double parricide or familicide). Using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), this chapter examines double parricide and familicide incidents involving single or multiple offenders over the 26-year period 1991–2016 with the aim of investigating juvenile involvement. The characteristics of the juvenile offender(s) involved in double parricide and familicide are presented. News accounts are used to augment available case information. Based on the official data and supplemental information gathered, a detailed summary of juveniles involved in double parricide and familicide in the United States is provided.
