Father kills mother. Issues and problems encountered by a child psychiatric team

Raising a child bereaved by domestic homicide: caregivers' experiences

Background: Optimising support for children and families affected by fatal family violence requires understanding all aspects of their experience. So far, little is known regarding the views of those who provide a home to children bereaved due to parental intimate partner homicide.Objective: The aim of the current study was to provide an in-depth exploration of the experiences of caregivers raising children after the loss of a parent due to intimate partner homicide.Method: Within the context of a mixed-methods study among 22 caregivers (16 female, 6 male, aged 33 to 71 years old) related to 35 children and young people (19 female, 16 male), bereaved due to parental intimate partner homicide in the Netherlands, we conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative caregiver interviews.Results: Based on caregivers' accounts, we conceptualised four interrelated and ongoing challenges: (1) bringing the children into the family fold; (2) dealing with the perpetrator and relatives; (3) managing underprepared services; and (4) enduring it, mentally and physically. Sticking with their commitment to the children despite these challenges, caregivers also pointed to the potential for positive outcomes or turns of events, and recounted experiences of finding or making meaning.Conclusions: The complexity of the challenges the caregivers in our study faced and their remarkable commitment and perseverance underscore the importance of concerted, continuing efforts to understand and respond to families' needs in the aftermath of parental intimate partner homicide. We discuss practical implications regarding caregivers' assessment of children's needs, mental health care, information provision and agency, mediation of family conflict, provision of respite care, addressing financial and practical needs, and long-term and equitable access to support. We also propose a research agenda involving evaluation of current protocols, in-depth qualitative research, quantitative analyses (where possible based on pooled data), and intervention studies.

Children's Mental Health and Well-Being After Parental Intimate Partner Homicide: A Systematic Review

When one parent kills the other, children are confronted with multiple losses, involving their attachment figures and their direct living environment. In these complex situations, potentially drastic decisions are made, for example, regarding new living arrangements and contact with the perpetrating parent. We aimed to synthesize the empirical literature on children's mental health and well-being after parental intimate partner homicide. A systematic search identified 17 relevant peer-reviewed articles (13 independent samples). We recorded the theoretical background, methodology, and sample characteristics of the studies, and extracted all child outcomes as well as potential risk and protective factors. Children's outcomes varied widely and included psychological, social, physical, and academic consequences (e.g., post-traumatic stress, attachment difficulties, weight and appetite changes, and drops in school grades). Potential risk and protective factors for children's outcomes included 10 categories of pre-, peri-, and post-homicide characteristics such as cultural background of the family, whether the child witnessed the homicide, and the level of conflict between the families of the victim and the perpetrator. We integrated the findings into a conceptual model of risk factors to direct clinical reflection and further research.

Femicide and murdered women's children: which future for these children orphans of a living parent?

BACKGROUND

To assess the prevalence of femicides in Italy over the last three years and the potential long lasting effects of these traumatic events for the children of a woman who dies a violent death.

METHODS

The data used in this study come from an internet search for the number of femicides occurring in Italy between 1(st) January, 2012 and 31(st) October, 2014.

RESULTS

The total number of femicides was 319; the average age of murdered women was 47.50 ± 19.26. Cold arms in the form of sharp object -mostly knives- have caused the death of 102/319 women; firearms were used in 87/319 cases; asphyxiation was the chosen method in 52/319 cases. About the place where the femicides occurred, 209/319 were committed inside the victim's house. Children of women who died a violent death were 417 with a total of 180 minors in less than three years. A total of 52/417 children were witness to the killing and, among these 30/52 were minors; in 18/417 cases, children were murdered together with their mother and among these 9/18 were minors.

CONCLUSIONS

Long-term studies are needed to ascertain what happens to these children, to understand what are the most appropriate psychological treatments, the best decisions about the contact with their father and the best placement for these children.

The dead end of domestic violence: spotlight on children's narratives during forensic investigations following domestic homicide

The current study provides an in-depth exploration of the narratives of children who witnessed their father killing their mother. This exploration was conducted using a thematic analysis of the children's forensic interviews based on seven investigative interviews that were conducted with children following the domestic homicide. Investigative interviews were selected for study only for substantiated cases and only if the children disclosed the domestic homicide. All of the investigative interviews were conducted within 24h of the domestic homicide. Thematic analysis revealed the following four key categories: the domestic homicide as the dead end of domestic violence, what I did when daddy killed mommy, that one time that daddy killed mommy, and mommy will feel better and will go back home. The discussion examines the multiple layers of this phenomenon as revealed in the children's narratives and its consequences for professionals within the legal and clinical contexts.

Forgiveness, and other themes, in women whose fathers killed their mothers

The purpose of this article is to describe the experiences of adult women who, when they were children, experienced the homicide of their mother by their father. Two qualitative interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 31 women survivors of uxoricide to create a qualitative description of the phenomenon. A number of themes have emerged including descriptions of the daughter "seeking understanding," "forgiving the father" (or not), and descriptions of the father in terms of his being her father or in terms of his behavior and the homicide.

Adult perspectives on growing up following uxoricide

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the state of the science on uxoricide, including qualitative findings on 47 survivors. Two qualitative interviews were conducted between January 2004 and January 2005 with 47 convenience sample adult survivors of uxoricide. Data were analyzed using hermeneutic analysis. A number of themes emerge, such as later experiences with violence, including sexual abuse as a child; family difficulties in speaking about the death; the need to learn about the homicide as an adult as well as a need to reconnect with and forgive the assailant; and the importance of a caring adult to provide stability.

Uxoricide: a phenomenological study of adult survivors

The effect on children of the murder of a parent by the other parent, uxoricide, is immediate and devastating. Usually in a single act, the child loses both parents, one to death and the other to the criminal justice system. This is a report on a qualitative study, with a sample of seven adults, designed to explore the experiences of these children as they grow to adulthood. The major themes developed in the data analysis include (1) a surprising lack of anger regarding the perpetrator, (2) intimate abuse in later personal relationships, and (3) a beginning description of paths to recovery.

Homicide bereavement counseling: a survey of providers

The opinions of 116 homicide bereavement caregivers of interventions recommended for survivors were solicited. Presenting problems, optimum treatment framework, and reasons for treatment failure were also surveyed. Respondents preferred methods associated with crisis intervention and grief counseling. Other clinical techniques were rated as moderately helpful, except family therapy, which was highly rated. Suppression of trauma imagery was deemed harmful to survivors, though diversion was recommended often in cases of complicated grief. Caregivers who are themselves survivors appeared more sensitive to some of the emotional aspects of homicide bereavement, such as the potential for retraumatization in therapy.

The impact of children witnessing violence

Over the past decade, Americans have recognized that violence has deeply permeated the lives of the most vulnerable among us--children. There is great concern over the effect these terrible experiences will have on present and future generations. It has also awakened the collective consciousness of our society that the impact of violence extends well beyond the child who is physically victimized to other larger groups of children such as those who witness these events. This article reviews the impact violence has on children.

Marital conflict by proxy after father kills mother: the family therapist as an expert witness in court

The father killing the mother leaves the children effectively without parents. The extended family from both sides will often intervene to offer a home for the children, or at least to have a say in what arrangements are made for the children and how they are to be brought up. Intensely competitive and hostile feelings between the opposing sets of relatives are commonly aroused, and the children may be caught up in a battle reminiscent of the conflict between their parents, which culminated in the death of their mother. I and my colleagues have, as a team, seen more than 300 children who have lost one parent at the hands of the other, and we have been involved in subsequent custody battles as expert witnesses. Based on this experience and using this context as an example, the issues for the family therapist as expert witness in adversarial Court proceedings are presented. A case is described that illustrates the theoretical exposition--including the effectiveness of family therapy from the witness box.

Working with the effects of traumatic bereavement by uxoricide (spouse killing) on young children's attachment behaviour

This is a clinical description of the work of the Traumatic Stress Clinic, London with children where one parent kills the other, paying special attention to the disorder of attachment which occurs in a majority of the young children. It is suggested that this arises from the combination of the extreme trauma of witnessing the homicide, the frequent changes of carer, and the relative lack of therapeutic help.

The battered women's movement response to children of battered women. A critical analysis

An evaluation of societal responses to children of battered women in the last two decades reveals significant developments in professional awareness of the problem, knowledge about difficulties experienced by children, and services provided to children. Yet, current priorities and ideologies held by many in the battered women's movement (BWM) seem to interfere with attaining the goal of providing all children of battered women with the protection and support they need. This article critically analyzes the response of the BWM to children of battered women and outlines recommendations for change. Three major issues are examined: the perception of children as “secondary” victims, woman battering and child abuse, and battering men as fathers. It is hoped that the analysis offered will stimulate constructive discussion leading to an expansion and improvement of services to child witnesses of domestic violence.

Psychiatric problems following bereavement by murder or manslaughter

Bereavement by murder or manslaughter is often associated with a high incidence of factors which increase the risk of lasting psychological problems after bereavement. In this study it appears that self-perpetuating vicious circles often accounted for the persistence of symptoms, which fitted the diagnostic categories of post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety states, panic syndromes, obsessive revenge-seeking, and depression. Therapeutic approaches should be aimed at interrupting these vicious circles and fostering the work of grieving.