Gender Associations of Filicide

• Sophie Levine, Criminal Justice, University of Delaware

• Chrysanthi Leon, Criminal Justice, University of Delaware

This study reviewed existing scholarship on the relationship between gender and the crime of filicide, with attention to motives, methods, statistical trends, and the ways that these perpetrators are perceived by the media and public. Research published between 1979 and 2024 documents significant and consistent differences between maternal and paternal filicide. Fathers tend to use more aggressive methods and mothers are more likely to be attributed altruistic motives. Mothers are often perceived as less culpable but also judged more harshly for deviating from their gender specific societal norms. The comprehensive review also uncovered differences between the filicides of genetic parents and stepparents along with connections to other types of family murders and domestic violence patterns. For instance, at one point in time in the United States, children who lived with a parental guardian who was not their genetic parent were 100 times more likely to be fatally assaulted. There is also a speculative connection between family annihilators as victims of family violence in their childhoods, creating a cycle. This review suggests that learning the distinctions between maternal and paternal filicide could be utilized in many ways, such as jury selection, understandings of the crime, and even possible preventions and predictions by using warning signs.