The dark side of the family: paternal child homicide in Australia

Longitudinal Analysis of Australian Filicide Perpetration Trends: Filicide in Victoria, 1860–1920

“…Historians demonstrated that men who killed children did so in different circumstances to women, and social responses to their crimes also differed (Arnot and Usborne 2002; Kaladelfos 2013). Kaladelfos (2013) found that men were more likely to kill older children, kill multiple children at once or perpetrate familicides. Motives for filicides, as explained in perpetrator confessions or in court, primarily centred on financial pressures to cater for the family.…”

“…Motives for filicides, as explained in perpetrator confessions or in court, primarily centred on financial pressures to cater for the family. Other cases were perpetrated in revenge of unfaithful wives or in response to a 'slighted paternal authority' due to the sexual immorality of daughters (Kaladelfos 2013). Moving away from simplistic explanations of a rough, masculine culture that rejected the domestic, these cases reveal understandings of nineteenth-century fatherhood, family responsibility and male shame (Kaladelfos 2013).…”

“…Other cases were perpetrated in revenge of unfaithful wives or in response to a 'slighted paternal authority' due to the sexual immorality of daughters (Kaladelfos 2013). Moving away from simplistic explanations of a rough, masculine culture that rejected the domestic, these cases reveal understandings of nineteenth-century fatherhood, family responsibility and male shame (Kaladelfos 2013). The end of the century saw the ascent of 'conjugal masculinity' and a reshaping of fatherhood that advocated for fathers to play an emotional, not merely financial, role in their children's lives (Hogan 1999).…”

“…The end of the century saw the ascent of 'conjugal masculinity' and a reshaping of fatherhood that advocated for fathers to play an emotional, not merely financial, role in their children's lives (Hogan 1999). Kaladelfos (2013) demonstrates that, where familial bonds seemed strong, paternal filicides were more likely to be interpreted in terms of mental instability. In England, men who perpetrated infanticide received more leniency before the courts than men who committed other crimes (Shepherd 2013), a claim that warrants further analysis in the Australian context.…”

“…Longitudinal trends of filicide offending have focused on the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (1980-2010s), and historical research into filicide has concentrated almost exclusively on maternal infanticide (Allen JA 1990;Burton 1986;Goc 2016;Laster 1989;Rychner 2017;Swain and Howe 1995). There has only been one study published about longitudinal, historical paternal child homicide in Australia (Kaladelfos 2013). Considering that filicide is primarily perpetrated by fathers and stepfathers in Australia today (Brown et al, 2019), it is important to expand upon knowledge of filicides.…”