Citation

Somander LK, Rammer LM. Child Abuse Negl. 1991; 15(1-2): 45-55.

Affiliation

Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Linköping, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2029671

Abstract

Over the 10-year period studied, a total of 96 children under 15 years of age were killed in Sweden. This number constituted an average annual rate of 0.6 per 100,000 children. The violence, most frequently involving strangulation, shooting, and stabbing, was largely directed at young children. The pattern of child homicide was mainly characterized by intrafamilial violence, especially in connection with the suicide of a parent-perpetrator. Extrafamilial homicides were rare and only committed by male perpetrators. Cases of child abuse by a parent and cases of sexual abuse were infrequent. By psychiatric examination after the crime, only 10 perpetrators out of 47 examined were found not mentally ill.

Language: en