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Roughly half of filicidal acts are committed by fathers, though the majority of the literature focuses on maternal filicide. This paper reviews the existing literature on paternal filicide with the goal of identifying characteristics common among these fathers. Fathers who killed their children were, on average, in their mid thirties. The mean age of their victims was five. They may have multiple victims. Sons and daughters were killed in equal numbers. Reasons included death related to abuse, mental illness (including psychosis and depression), and revenge against a spouse. The method often involved wounding violence. Suicide following the act occurred frequently. After being tried for their crimes, filicidal fathers were more frequently incarcerated than hospitalized. Given the range of those capable of this act, mental health professionals must be alert to the possibility of filicide in a variety of fathers. Considering this risk, clinicians should inquire about thoughts of harming children, partners, and themselves.

Sexual offenses committed by women are likely underestimated and under-reported. This exploratory study compares and contrasts women accused of sexual offenses and their male counterparts. Data were retrospectively compiled on all alleged female and age-matched male sex offenders who were referred for psychiatric evaluation to a large Midwestern city's court psychiatric clinic over a six-year period. Data were abstracted regarding their crimes, charges, demographics, social history, medical history, legal history, violence history, substance use, sexual history, psychiatric history and their victims. Like the men, women were most frequently referred for sexual predator classification evaluations. Ages ranged from 19 to 62 years, and the majority had children. Most had prior arrests. One-third had a past history of psychiatric hospitalization, and most were given a non-paraphilic psychiatric diagnosis. The majority of the women reported past histories of sexual or physical victimization. While there were many similarities between female and male sex offenders in this psychiatric sample, women more frequently had victims of both genders.

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