Kids Who Kill Their Parents

Kids Who Kill Their Parents
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Kids Who Kill Their Parents
The world is not devoid of mysterious and shocking events that arouses and overwhelms human comprehension. One of these events is the cases of children who later turn against their parents and slay them in cold blood. The following essay delves into the issue and indicates such real cases while it endeavors to explicate the psychological perspective that could assist comprehend the mental and emotional nature of these persons.
One of the most shocking incidences was one that occurred in the UK, where 14 year old teenager killed his mother in bed, extinguished her with fuel and setting her on fire. Daniel Bartlam, who was then a teenager, who is currently serving life in prison after shifting from juvenile prison, displayed disturbing and queer behavior prior to his homicide. The boy is perceived to have been triggered into his perturbing behavior after his parents divorced when he was merely 9 years old (Grinberg, 2006). He abruptly started being fond of horror movies and writing gory short plays and stories. He turned reclusive and often posted distressing posts, videos and picture on social media sites.
Another case is of 16-year-old girl named Sarah Jonson who killed her parents by shooting them with a rifle for disapproving of her boyfriend. Sarah had a sibling called Matt. Friends and neighbors described Sarah as infatuated and obsessed by his undocumented Mexican immigrant boyfriend who was purportedly involved in illegal drugs use. According to his bother Matt, Sarah had an aptness for lying and described her as a ‘good actor and drama queen’. Several witnesses in her court trial indicated of her suspiciously feigned emotions after the barbarous killing (Morris, 2003).
Stacey Lanneret was sexually abused by his father from the time when she was in third grade. It is clear that his mother was slow to defend her before she later divorced and left, leaving the two daughters in their brutal father’s care. The sexual and physical abuses continued until high school grade where Stacy dropped out and attempted running away from her father’s home leaving her sister behind. Stacey turned on her father when he began sexually assaulting her younger sibling Christy. He killed her father at the age of 18 by shooting him (Wilson, 2002).
Yet another variant case is one of Eric and Lyle Menendez. Unlike in most others incidences, the two were raised in an affluent family and were described as lazy and pampered. Lyle had been expelled from Princeton for plagiarizing most of his assignments and his father changed his cosset ways and put Lyle to work. Lyle continued his attitude coming in late for work every day and sometimes just left work to play tennis. He got fired. Lyle and Eric began shoplifting in jewelry stores and after an $110,000 fine and reticent attitude from neighbors, they moved house. Lyle continued his behavior in his new school and destroyed and looted property that led to his suspension. Their behavior exceeded and their parents become apprehensive. Their father threatened to expunge them from his will if they did not change their ways. This threat led them to purchase a gun and kill their parents to acquire their wealth and tried to shroud their misdeeds (Morris, 2003).
These are isolated cases of the numerous cases that have occurred of parricide. Children are expected to respect the elders or parents despite the nature of their nurture and parenting. However, society tends to react differently to variant circumstances of parricide. They are often sympathetic with the kids when the murdered parents used to be abusive especially sexually to their offspring such as Stacey Lanneret’s in our case (Wilson, 2002). According to psychologists, kids result to murder of their parent perceiving it as the sole way to free themselves from suffering, shame, dread and to the extreme, their imminent death. How should the criminal system address such children in court? While the court applies its sentences it should consider the psychological trauma suffered due to abusive parenting.
The incidences of parricide might be rare in intra-family homicides, accounting for merely 2 % of these latter cases, however, they are the most publicized. Of most occasions of parricides involve the son killing both or either parents accounting for 90% of parricides. The least form of parricide is of daughters killing their mothers according to statistics. In virtually all incidences of child partaken homicides, the incidences are characterized with pre-meditated murder and the killing is usually non-confrontational. The kids take advantage of the parent’s withdrawn attention and commit their crime since they would be physically disadvantaged in a face-off. Society is naturally disposed to adjudge these kids as wayward, immoral and depraved. Nonetheless, parricides are shown to be committed after protracted suffering of kids by parents who answer for over 90% of the cases.
Parents who are murdered by their kids don’t exhibit assorted characteristics to mainstream parents. They are usually industrious with no criminal records; however, they may display imposing personalities such as patronizing, dominant and intimidating temperaments. In such cases, the parent is overly critical of the child’s wrongs. Instead of understandably correcting the kid, they wield their authority excessively and habitually almost drawing pleasure from it. It commonly starts with verbal abuse, exploitation, berating, and isolation to physical and psychological mistreatment. The children in these cases are exceedingly controlled and patronized they are become apparently bound in a virtual prison (Mones, 1992).
Statistics have indicated that parents who abuse their children are ten-folds more likely to murder the kids than the likelihood of the kids killing either or both of their parents. Such abusive parenting is ostensibly common with California registering 133 child deaths related to parental abuse and negligence in 2001. This number spiked to 1500 in 2003 involving kids less than 3 years old indicating a solemn trend in child abuse. Whenever one parent becomes abusive and the other does not offer protection or solace, the child feeling of helplessness is deepened.
During growth of a child, they are virtually entirely dependent on their parents for emotional, financial and physical needs. Kids are naturally bonded to their parents regardless of how they are treated. If treated poorly, they acquire a sense of self-blame and are inclined to conform to demeanor that pleases the parent. However, as the parent increasingly becomes hostile self blame and impuissance could build up to parricide. It is actually commonly noticed that parricide offenders are usually polite, intelligent, respectful and compliant. These kids while interacting with the rest in the society appear docile, though some may display reclusiveness, concealing the emotional scars that they bear.
Children sometimes feels that they would most likely not be understood or believed if they reported to the authorities. This is evident since they are perceived to be psychologically immature, especially if they do not exhibit battery signs such as bruises, welts and injuries. More so, parents will be questioned as to the allegation and will obviously deny and cover up alleging that probably their child is getting back at them for being denied something. This is worsened by the fact that kids currently are wayward and commonly abuse police services such as 911 calls. The children also fear reprisal from the parents since most of the time they are threatened against telling of their abuse to anyone. Many at times when these children report to their relatives, social agencies or schools, they are slow to take effective measures to protect the child time that may be dire for the child. The decency to leave private family matters interfere with also augments the problem.
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