Parricide Over Time

• In Event: Macro and Historical Issues in Violence

Abstract

This paper examines the killing of parents and stepparents over time (parricide) using Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data base compiled by James Alan Fox to identify trends in parricide and to investigate differences between parricides and other types of murder. Data analysis proceeded in four stages. The first stage was designed to identify changes in the occurrence of parricides from 1976 through 2020. The second and third stages of analyses focused on 1980-20 data to facilitate comparisons across the decades. In the second stage, 10 variables were compared across two periods (1980-1999 and 2000-2020) to examine whether changes had occurred over time. The variables included characteristics of parricide incidents (month, region, urbanness, weapon), victims (age, sex, race), and offenders (age, sex, race). In the third stage, these same 10 variables were compared with respect to parricide incidents and other types of homicides (non-parricide cases) to ascertain if the correlates of parricide incidents were uniquely different from other types of homicides. In the fourth stage, attention focused on investigating whether the characteristics of parricides differed from those of other homicides during the most recent period (2000-2020). The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings.

Authors

• Kathleen M. Heide, University of South Florida

• James A. Fox, Northeastern University