Understanding Parricide

When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents

Kathleen M. Heide

Includes information on both adult and juvenile parricide offenders
Integrates scientific, practitioner-oriented approach in examining pathways that led parricide offenders to kill their parents
Synthesis of the literature on parricide in general is unparalleled
Treatment and risk assessment are discussed in the context of the particular type of parricide offender
Author personally evaluated dozens of individuals charged with killing one or both parents

Understanding Parricide

When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents

Kathleen M. Heide

Description

Understanding Parricide is the most comprehensive book available about juvenile and adult sons and daughters who kill their parents. Dr. Heide moves far behind the statistical correlates of parricide by synthesizing the professional literature on parricide in general, matricide, patricide, double parricides, and familicides. As a clinician, she explains the reasons behind the killings. Understanding Parricide includes in-depth discussion of issues related to prosecuting and defending parricide offenders. The book is enriched with its focus on clinical assessment, case studies, and follow-up of parricide offenders, as well as treatment, risk assessment, and prevention.

Understanding Parricide

When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents

Kathleen M. Heide

PART I CLINICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES
1. The Phenomenon of Parricide
2. Child Maltreatment and Parricide
3. Parricide: Basic Facts and Literature
4. Matricide: Basic Facts and Literature
5. Patricide: Basic Facts and Literature
6. Prosecuting and Punishing Parricide Offenders
7. Defending Parricide Offenders
PART II CASE STUDIES
8. Assessment of Parricide Offenders
9. Patty Smith - "No Way Out but Murder"
10. Peter Jones - "Repeating the Past"
11. James Holt — "The Making of a Murderer"
12. Daniel Culbreath - "Fantasy Becomes Reality"
13. Ben Simpson — "An Over-Indulged Child"
PART III SOCIETY'S RESPONSE
14. Treating Parricide Offenders
15. Follow-Up Studies of Parricide Offenders
16. Risk Assessment and Prevention
Notes
References
About the Author
Index

Understanding Parricide

When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents

Kathleen M. Heide

Author Information

Kathleen M. Heide, Professor of Criminology, University of South Florida, Tampa

Kathleen M. Heide, Ph.D., is Professor of Criminology at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Dr. Heide, a licensed mental health professional, is an internationally-recognized consultant on adolescent homicide and family violence and a court-appointed expert in matters relating to homicide, children, and families.

Understanding Parricide

When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents

Kathleen M. Heide

Reviews and Awards

"Understanding Parricide provides a comprehensive and compelling treatment of this complex subject that could become the standard reference in the field. Nothing is lacking in its coverage and presentation of research conclusions about an array of topics, including child maltreatment, matricide, patricide, legal issues in defending, prosecuting, and punishing offenders, forensic assessment, treatment, risk assessment, and prevention. The reader will become acutely aware of the family, societal, and legal circumstances of parricide offenders. Special attention is given to the involvement of females in various types of parricides." - DWC DivisioNews Book Reviews, Summer 2013

"Kathleen Heide is an extraordinarily well-qualified person to write an excellent summary and evaluation of knowledge about parricide... In addition to being a distinguished researcher, she is a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Florida. She has engaged in countless forensic evaluations of killers, both for the prosecution and the defense, and she draws on this experience to provide in her current book an extraordinarily rich account of parricides and their outcomes in the legal system... Heide's volume is a masterpiece of epidemiological, clinical, forensic, and thoughtful policy analysis. I hope that it becomes a standard assignment in graduate schools of criminal justice and also for any mental health professionals wishing to understand and to work with parricides." - Keith E. Davis for PsycCritiques, July 2013

Understanding Parricide

When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents

Kathleen M. Heide

From Our Blog

Girls who kill

By Kathleen M. Heide, Ph.D. There has been a resurgence of interest in girls who kill, following the report of two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls who stabbed another girl of the same age 19 times on May 31, 2014. The girls reportedly had planned to kill their friend following a birthday sleepover to demonstrate their allegiance to a fictionalized internet character known as Slender Man.

Posted on June 26, 2014

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Parricide in perspective

By Kathleen M. Heide, PhD It hardly seems like 24 years since Jose and Kitty Menendez were shot to death by their two sons, Lyle and Eric. It was a crime that shocked the nation because the family seemed 'postcard perfect' to many observers. Jose was an immigrant from Cuba who worked hard and became a multi-millionaire. He married Kitty, a young attractive woman he met in college, who was also hardworking. They were the parents of two handsome sons.

Posted on September 1, 2013

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Reflections on the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School

By Kathleen M. Heide, Ph.D. The mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut is a tragic event that is particularly painful as it comes at a time when people across the world are trying to focus on the upcoming holidays as the season of peace bringing good tidings of great joy. Three factors about the Newtown school shooting are noteworthy. First, it was a mass murder. Second, it appears to have been precipitated by the killing of a parent (parricide). Third, it was committed by a 20-year old man. All of these factors are relevant in making sense of what appears to be inexplicable violence.

Posted on December 18, 2012

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