Men Who Murder Children Inside and Outside the Family

Authors: Cavanagh, Kate; Emerson Dobash, R.; Dobash, R. P.

Source: British Journal of Social Work, Volume 35, Number 5, July 2005 , pp. 667-688(22)

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Published for the British Association of Social Workers, this is the leading academic social work journal in the UK. It covers every aspect of social work, with papers reporting research, discussing practice, and examining principles and theories. It is read by social work educators, researchers, practitioners and managers who wish to keep up to date with theoretical and empirical developments in the field.

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Abstract:

The focus of this paper is on men who murder children. The data are drawn from a larger study of Murder in Britain,¹ which examined all types of murder and included data from a total sample of 866 case files of both men and women convicted of murder and serving a life sentence in England or Scotland. This analysis is based on a subset of ninety cases of men convicted of the murder of a child. Two types of child murder are compared: men who kill children within the family (FM, n = 49) and men who murder children outside the family context (NFM, n = 41). The two types of murder are compared in terms of the childhood and family backgrounds of the perpetrator, the circumstances at the time of the murder and elements of the murder event itself. The main findings reveal many significant differences between the two groups of perpetrators, indicating a need for more nuanced policy and practice responses to the murder of children.

Keywords: men who kill children; child homicide; child murder; child abuse

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bch202