A comparison between men charged with domestic and nondomestic homicide.

Two hundred thirteen males charged with mur4er and who received pretrial psychiatric evaluations were divided into two groups of domestic and nondomestic homicide defendants. Demographics, developmental and family background, prior criminal records, victim characteristics, and psychiatric status at the time of the crime were used to compare these groups. Those who were charged with intrafamilial homicide tend to be older, have a more stable adjustment in the community, but have more evidence of early childhood behavioral problems. Also, they are more likely to have committed prior crimes against persons. Two psychosocial stressors which were found to be important were the recent loss of employment and recent release from a psychiatric hospital. Post-offense suicidal attempts and psychotic/bizarre behavior were more prevalent for the intrafamilial murderers. Implications of these results for forensic psychiatry and future directions of research are discussed. The significance of violence in the family as a major public health issue in the U.S. was highlighted by the appointment of the President's Task Force on Family Violence (1983). Although violence between family members is rarely viewed as criminal, intrafamilial homicide is a well-defined entity and has been investigated extensively by criminologists. However, the psychiatric literature on homicide within the family seems to be sparse. Murders within the family constitute one-third of all homicides in the U.S. Spouses kill spouses in 50 percent of intrafamilial murders; in the rest, parents kill children, children kill parents, and other relatives kill one another. Several types of family murder are recognized: (1) filicide (murder of a child by parents); (2) neonaticide l (murder of the newborn child); (3) parricide which is either matricide (murder of mother by a child) or patricide (murder of father); (4) uxoricide (spouse murder); (5) fratricide (sibling murder); and (6) familicide2 (murder of the entire family). A review of specific categories3 of intrafamilial murder suggests that