Psychiatric characterization of parricide

In Chile, legally commits parricide the one that, knowing the relationships that binds them, kills his/her father, mother or child, or any other of his/her ascendants or descendants, or spouse or couple. It is a rare crime, being around 4% of the homicides. The objective of this review is to characterize parricide psychiatrically, which is done basically using international literature. There are different profiles of parricides depending on the characteristics of the situation in which the crime is committed. The most frequent profile is that of a young male adult, with acute psychotic pathology, associated to drug and alcohol abuse. A second type is represented by adolescents in three situations: the severely abused child, the severely mentally ill child, and the dangerously antisocial child. To kill own children is a form of parricide as well, and there are differences between the psychiatric profiles of neonaticide, infanticide and filicide committers. Femicide is the murder of women committed by men on grounds of gender, and legally constitutes parricide. The most frequent is the intimate femicide, and it is associated with prior violence and drug and alcohol abuse. Parricide, even though it is an infrequent event, it is an important fact between psychiatric patients, being, in consequence, very relevant for the psychiatrist and mental health workers, the knowledge of this issue