Filicide in Northeast India: A study of 10 cases

Abstract

Background: Filicide, or the murder of one’s own child, is an unfathomable crime. Every now and then, filicide gets media attention. One positive outcome that may be derived from this factor is practitioners’ heightened awareness that parents may, for a variety of reasons, be compelled to kill their children. Materials and Methods: This article presents 10 cases of paternal filicide to spread awareness about the concept of filicide, its prevalence, modus operandi, and causes in contemporary times. These cases were studied from the postmortem records of a tertiary health-care center in Northeast India during the past 10 years, i.e., from 2012 to 2022. Results: All the cases were paternal filicides. The ages of the victims ranged from newborns to adolescents. The motives were usually associated with mental and social disturbances in the family life of the perpetrators. Modus operandi ranged from smothering to the use of blunt and sharp weapons and from impulsive to calculated acts. Many factors are involved in the dynamics of a filicidal situation. It is therefore difficult to identify specific warning signals for the prevention of this type of homicide. Conclusion: The knowledge of filicide will hopefully bring about clinicians’ increased exploration of patients’ thoughts of harming their children, which may ultimately lead to the prevention of these senseless crimes. Mental health professionals and the general population must be made aware of the importance of early assessment of possible filicidal tendencies when a man verbalizes delusional ideas about his child and/or if he manifests disorganized and bizarre behavior.