SA filicide 'driven by need to hurt partner' – expert
A study by a Stellenbosch University psychology expert has found that parents who murder their children in South Africa are often driven by a need to hurt their partner.
According to Dr Melanie Moen, her study on the journal of investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling has found that revenge filicides are also a result of blinding anger caused by extreme emotional distress.
Moen analysed media reports and court documents about revenge filicide cases from 2003 to this year, concentrating on 20 of these child murder cases.
She found that 60% of the offenders were married at the time of the murder and killed their own children due to marital discord, a break-up or a new love interest.
READ: Trial of Phoenix dad accused of killing family to start next year
She says a divorce that can strip the murdering partner of their investment, control and social status in the relationship.
"What we found is in some cases a child is not seen as a person anymore, the child is now sort of an object and this object is easier to murder as it is something that you don't humanise.
"So they often don't see the children as human beings and they are murdered to sort of get back at the other partner or parent. So they derive pleasure from seeing the pain of the other parent.”
