Why Kids Kill Parents

Child Abuse and Adolescent Homicide

Kathleen M. Heide

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 1994
• Print ISBN: 9780803970601
• eBook ISBN: 9781544343150
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Although the book is about murder. Heide does not limit herself to purely individual or family-based analysis. She is interested in connecting all the factors which lead to these tragic situations, in good and bad parenting and in social reform. It is this breadth of analysis which makes the book so readable and so useful. --Judith Bevan in ACCO Child Psychology & Psychiatry Review "This book is a compassionate examination of adolescent patricide offenders (APO?s) in the United States of America. It could be commended to anyone interested in how children are initiated into society." --Joanna Adler, University of Kent at Canterbury Kathleen Heide?s sensitive and important account of family life gone wrong examines the shocking phenomenon of adolescents who kill their parents. Using actual case studies and a careful analysis of FBI data, Kathleen M. Heide discusses the motivations and backgrounds of these troubled adolescents, and what emerges is a tragic portrait--the adolescent murderer is almost always a terrified victim of severe child abuse, neglect, and dysfunctional parenting who kills out of desperation. Drawing upon her skill and experience as a scholar, clinician, and expert witness, Heide asserts that a combination of five interconnected problems creates the conditions for parricide: The youth is raised in a chemically dependent or otherwise dysfunctional family; the child is severely abused sexually, physically, and/or verbally; violence in the child?s family escalates; the youth becomes increasingly vulnerable to stressors in the home environment; and the child has ready access to a firearm. Why Kids Kill Parents begins with a foreword by notable criminologist Hans Toch, and concludes with an examination of types of intervention that are effective in treating severely abused children who kill their parents. Heide proposes ways in which the media and the educational system can prevent child abuse and parricide by fostering functional families and mitigating the effects of dysfunctional ones. Why Kids Kill Parents is essential reading for all those who care about the nurturing of children and families in today?s society, as well as professionals in juvenile justice, criminology, law, mental health, education, and youth advocacy. "Heide?s book offers an integrative understanding of both the dysfunctional family and child who kills. Of particular interest to clinicians is the chapter on assessment. This volume is the most comprehensive resource found on children who kill." --Youth Violence "The resolution of such questions as `What is a just response to a parricide by an abused child?? is a societal one. Our society permits divergent ideas (and data) to surface and to compete for adoption. In such a system a scientist and clinician such as Kathleen Heide can play a precious role. The work summarized in Why Kids Kill Parents is a testament to this role. It is also a credit to its author, who cares about ameliorating suffering and reducing despair." --from the Foreword by Hans Toch "Why Kids Kill Parents contains a goldmine of material for diverse theoretical and practical applications, from aggression theory and legal analysis to specific, practical suggestions for therapy. Kathleen Heide has produced a valuable resource that, I hope and expect, will become a model for similar investigations and serve as a foundation for rational policy development." --Carolyn Rebecca Block, Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, Women & Criminal Justice Vol. 6 No. 2 1995 "I have read Dr. Heide?s book, Why Kids Kill Parents, and believe it is the best available book on the topic. . . . Unlike the other books on this topic, Why Kids Kill Parents indicates a comprehensive knowledge of the prior literature and of the frequency and pattern of juvenile homicide. No other book covers etiology and treatment. Dr. Heide is a scientist, advocate, and clinician, and her book reflects all these perspectives." --William Willbanks, Florida International University "In an unprecedented fashion, Kathleen Heide offers comprehensive definitions of childhood maltreatment that delineate the nature and scope of various types of abuse and neglect, which the adolescent parricide offender endures in a family where violence is all too common an experience. . . . This book is a must-read for all professionals who are involved in the care of and in contact with children and adolescents." --Susan Crimmins, MSW, Clinical Social Worker and Researcher, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Vol. 9 No. 2 1993 "It is easy to see why this book has captured a commendable degree of media attention. It is well-written, fascinating in fact, so it is extremely interesting to read. Underlying this is a crucial observation, that Kathleen Heide?s work has been well-received within legal, clinical, and other professional circles--that it has affected and is likely to have further implications for the way that adolescent parricide offenders are handled by the courts." --Patricia Van Voorhis, Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati

CASE STUDIES

Assessment and Its Implications

UNDERSTANDING WHY a particular youth killed a parent requires knowledge of the adolescent, his or her family, and the home environment. Although many of these data can be obtained by a mental health professional¹ from the APO during the clinical interview, collateral sources of information are often invaluable in verifying information, evaluating competing theories, determining the credibility of the youth, and coming to a conclusion about the motive for the homicide. Sources include police reports, offender statements to law enforcement officers and defense counsel, witnesses’ depositions, mental health reports, school records, and previous social services investigations.

Thorough assessment in each case involving an APO is critical regardless of the factual situation. It should not be cut short just because severe abuse is apparent, since a severely abused child could adopt a nihilistic response pattern. Assessment should not be limited to the identification of a conduct disorder or the presence or absence of psychosis. An APO who meets DSM III-R’s criteria for a conduct disorder and is classified as a dangerously antisocial child may fit the profile of the nihilistic killer, who is at the farthest point along the continuum of the dangerously antisocial.

The identification of psychosis in and of itself is insufficient to understand the youth and the motive for killing a family member. At the very least, some determination must be made whether the severely mentally ill child’s communications, the content of his or her delusions and hallucinations, or behavior are indicative of the nihilistic killer. Identification could serve as a warning signal that these youths pose an increased risk to society and warrant more incapacitation, whether in a mental hospital or a correctional facility, than other youths who kill a parent, unless and until the nihilistic pattern is eradicated. Identification of the pattern has the potential result of saving some lives.²

A comprehensive assessment is also important because mental health experts are increasingly called upon by defense attorneys to testify about the APO’s state of mind at the time of the killing. Consideration of the mental status of the youth during the crime may persuade a judge or jury to excuse the defendant from whole or partial responsibility. The mental health professional may also perform other important services. Armed with a favorable report from a mental health professional prior to trial, defense counsel may succeed in persuading the prosecution to dismiss or reduce the charges, or at the very least to forgo seeking the death penalty. If the APO is convicted of homicide, defense counsel may use the mental health evaluation to convince the court to depart from statutory guidelines. Death penalty statutes typically contain specific psychological mitigators. For example, it is a mitigator in certain states if a homicide offender, although legally sane during the commission of the crime, was “under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance.” Testimony by a mental health expert that an APO was unable “to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law” when committing the homicide is another mitigating circumstance.³ The mental health expert who has done an in-depth evaluation could also testify to nonstatutory mitigators—child abuse, child neglect, spouse abuse, dysfunctional family, and so on.

In part 2 three clinical case studies of adolescent parricide offenders are presented. Clinical case study has several advantages.⁴ It involves studying actual people with real difficulties and, unlike laboratory experiments, is not contrived or artificial. In addition, the clinical case history can investigate phenomena that are so rare or peculiar that it is unlikely that they could be studied using any other standard method of investigation. Clinical case studies are also essential in generating hypotheses about the causes of and solutions to particular problems and, on occasion, in providing disconfirming evidence for a prevailing hypothesis.

The clinical case history method has an equal number of disadvantages, however.⁵ Such studies are almost always retrospective, so the data on which interpretations are based may be distorted or selective. Moreover, each case history is unique and cannot be replicated. One cannot predict how far the findings in a particular case study generalize to the larger population. In the three case histories of APOs chosen for the next three chapters, for example, there was severe abuse. But to what extent similar types of severe abuse exists in adolescents who do not kill their parents is unknown because not all cases of abuse are reported, nor do available data classify reported cases by severity. Accordingly, causation cannot be determined with this method. The case study method investigates only individuals who have a particular problem or fall into a particular category, and does not focus on those who do not.⁶

The semistructured interview I conducted with each APO allowed assessment of level of personality growth and moral reasoning.⁷ Its format also permitted the exploration of the youth’s perceptions of the killing, processing through the adult criminal justice system, and sentencing. In addition, the interview examined other areas of importance, including family relationships, school, work, friends, drug and alcohol involvement, handling of problems and affectivity, and prior delinquent activity.

The interviews provided extensive data on the adolescents’ perceptions of themselves, others, and the world around them, and on their characteristic ways of responding to events. This information made it possible to evaluate the plausibility of the youths’ statements about the killings, to understand the dynamics behind them, and to make recommendations about the disposition of their cases.

PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

An assessment of the adolescent’s personality or ego development is essential. Personality assessment reveals how an individual makes sense of the world. In addition to helping interpret behavior, knowing the youth’s personality level can aid in determining the credibility of his or her statements. It is also critical in evaluating issues related to the likelihood of continued criminal behavior and in charting treatment strategies and prognosis.⁸

Several frameworks to measure personality or ego development currently exist.⁹ The youths whose stories are told in this section were classified by the Interpersonal Level of Maturity Theory (I-level).¹⁰ This theory of personality development, which originated with a group of psychology students in Berkeley in the early 1950s, has its underpinnings in child development, psychoanalytic theory, Lewinian theory, phenomenological theory, and social perception. Over the last 30 years, it has been widely researched and used with both juvenile and adult offender populations for treatment and management.¹¹

I-level classifies people into one of seven categories according to the complexity with which they perceive themselves, others, and their environment. Very few individuals, if any, reach the ideal of social maturity associated with the highest level, 7. If the developing child has a very stressful or threatening experience, he or she may resist change and make desperate attempts to remain at his or her present level of development because it seems safer.¹²

By maintaining that individuals are accountable for their actions, the criminal justice system implicitly assumes that defendants are at level 4 or higher. The maturity levels that have been empirically identified in the offender population range from level 2 to level 5.¹³ The APOs whom I assessed perceived at levels 3 to 5.

Persons classified at level 3 are primarily concerned with identifying who the powerful people are in any given situation. They do not yet appreciate that other people have needs and feelings different from their own, instead viewing others in stereotypic ways. These individuals try to get their needs met by conforming to the demands of the person in power at the moment or by controlling others through attack or intimidation. They frequently deny that they have strong feelings or deep emotional involvements. They do not feel guilty or perceive a need to make amends for their misbehavior because they typically perceive others as objects to be manipulated.¹⁴

Individuals at level 4 wish to make something of themselves and be recognized for their ideals or interests, their potentialities or accomplishments by those they admire. They are capable of making long-range plans and of delaying their response to immediate stimuli. Unlike individuals at earlier stages, they are able to evaluate their behavior and that of others against an internalized set of standards and have some perception of the role that needs and motives in themselves and others play in behavior. They are aware that behavioral choices are available to them and may experience guilt when they fail to behave in accordance with their values. They are capable of entering into a reciprocal relationship with another person whose needs, feelings, ideals, or standards of behavior are similar to their own.¹⁵

Persons at level 5 are increasingly aware of different ways of coping with events. They begin to distinguish roles appropriate for themselves and others for different occasions. Although individuals at this level may sometimes wonder which of the roles is “the real me,” they are aware of continuity in their own and others’ lives. Individuals classified at level 5 are able to appreciate people who are different from them and to understand what they do and how they feel. They are capable of putting themselves in others’ roles because they can compare their impressions of events and activities with those of others.¹⁶

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AND THE ABUSED CHILD

When an adolescent kills a parent, a mental health expert should investigate the possibility that he or she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD has become associated in the public’s mind with the difficulties experienced by some Vietnam veterans in readjusting to civilian life. These individuals report episodes when they feel as though they are reexperiencing the stressful events of the war. On rare occasions, veterans, believing that they are back in combat, will attack others, sometimes seriously injuring or killing them.

In DSM-III-R the American Psychiatric Association gave four examples of events that would be expected to evoke significant distress in almost anyone who encountered them. Children raised in homes where they and/or their mothers are severely abused often experience such events:

1. Serious threat to one’s life or physical integrity
2. Serious threat or harm to one’s children, spouse, or other close relatives and friends
3. Sudden destruction of one’s home or community
4. Seeing another person who has recently been, or is being, seriously injured or killed as the result of an accident or physical violence¹⁷

In considering the appropriateness of the diagnosis of PTSD in the case of the APO, the three factors discussed below must be present for at least one month.

Reexperiencing the Traumatic Event

In the case of the APO, there is unlikely to be one traumatic event, particularly if the parents are chemically dependent. Instead, the youth has probably been a victim or a witness to a series of incidents in which extreme physical violence was perpetrated by the deceased parent. In addition to the traumatizing effect of the repeated incidents of serious harm or threat, the homicide itself is very likely to be another traumatic event which the APO will reexperience.

The traumatic event or events can be reexperienced in a number of ways, including through recurrent and intrusive recollections of the abusive and threatening episodes, a sense of reliving the event, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative or flashback episodes. The reexperiencing of traumatic events is often critical to understanding the motive for killing the abusive parent. Intrusive recollections of past trauma can provide the impetus to pull the trigger even at a time when the youth is not physically threatened. The youth’s reexperiencing the trauma associated with being abused and witnessing another, often his or her mother, being threatened and injured can lead the youth to kill in a dissociative state (an altered state of consciousness in which the youth may have been unaware of his behavior and its consequences at some point during or around the time of the homicidal event). After the parent is dead, the APO often expresses the fear that the parent may not be really dead. The youth frequently reports dreaming that the parent is coming after him or her, and that the homicide is recurring.

Avoidance and Numbing of General Responsiveness

Individuals avoid dealing with trauma by avoiding thoughts, feelings, situations, or activities that cause them to recall traumatic events. They may develop psychogenic amnesia, the inability to recall important aspects of trauma. The APO’s reluctance to discuss details of the trauma that he or she endured for years prior to the homicide often takes the form of a general unwillingness to discuss the abuse and neglect in the home. After the homicide, the avoidance of thoughts or feelings associated with the history of severe abuse may persist even when silence is self-defeating. Patty Smith, for example, was extremely reticent in describing the trauma associated with her and her mother’s victimization. She was ready to plead guilty to first-degree murder rather than recount the past.

Individuals numb themselves by losing interest in significant activities, feeling detached or estranged from others, dissociating from their feelings or bodies, or having a restricted range of affect that precludes, for example, loving others. They may believe that their future will be foreshortened and may not expect to have a career, marriage or children, or a long life. The numbing of general responsiveness occurs after the trauma. For the APO, this numbing typically begins years before the homicide as a response to ongoing trauma in the home. This symptom of PTSD, which enables the APO to survive deplorable conditions often for years, is frequently misinterpreted after the homicide as an indication of callousness. When the APO relates episodes of abuse that he or she has witnessed or endured, the youth may seem detached from them. A listener without clinical training may question whether the youth really experienced the events described. Frequently the APO is alleged to have no remorse. At the time of the homicide and for some time thereafter, remorse may not be accessible to the youth, who has shut down his or her capacity to feel.

Increased Arousal

Individuals may experience increased arousal in a number of ways, including difficulty falling or staying asle...

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• I. PARRICIDE: FACTS AND ISSUES
• II. CASE STUDIES
• III. IMPLICATIONS, PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
• Appendix: Analysis of Parricide Offenders by Juvenile versus Adult Status
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author