A tragic portrait of adolescents who kill their parents is revealed in this volume: these young people almost always kill out of desperation as they are almost always victims of severe child abuse, neglect and dysfunctional parenting. Drawing upon her experience as a clinician, expert witness and scholar, the author asserts that a combination of interconnected problems creates the conditions for parricide, including: severe sexual, physical and/or verbal abuse of the child; escalating violence in the family; and increasing vulnerability of the child to stressors in the home.
This sensitive volume includes an examination of interventions that are effective in treating such children. Heide concludes that adolescent parricide offenders can be reintegrated into society through treatment, not imprisonment, and proposes ways in which the media and the educational system can help to prevent child abuse and parricide.