Mental Illness and Parricide. A Case Report of Patricide

Abstract

According to world-wide statistics, schizophrenia is the most common mental illness identified in people who commit this type of murder. Also, there are slight associations between matricide which is often committed by the sons and patricide which is often committed by daughters. Most of the perpetrators in cases of parricide are under the age of 30, with adolescents covering a big part of the chart. The age of schizophrenic debut, the psychiatric and social attendance of the patients, the active psychotic symptoms, with hallucinations and paranoid persecution ideas but also, the affective inversion towards close friends and family members are frequently found in people who commit parricide. Also, psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia-like clinical aspects can appear in other mental disorders such as mental retardation, dementia or bipolar disorder. The subject is extremely complex as it has to be understood through the characteristics of the mental illness, the basic family relations, the personality of the victims, and last, but not least, the discernment issue that gives more heaviness to the juridical and social involvements of these cases. We hereby present the case of a 17-year-old girl, from the forensic psychiatric board, diagnosed with mental retardation and psychotic symptoms that murdered her father by multiple strikes in vital areas with blunt and sharp objects. We will assess the familial, social and psychological aspects of the case, revealing the implications of mental illness and forensic psychiatry in law enforcement and social services.