Citation

Benezech M, Ceccaldi B, Guitard S. Ann. Med. Psychol. (Paris) 2020; 178(7): 760-767.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Societe Medico-Psychologique, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.amp.2020.06.009

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The authors describe at length the case of a 33-year-old woman who shot and killed her 9-year-old daughter and attempted suicide immediately afterwards. The judicial inquiry revealed that this infanticidal mother originally intended to kill her own father, who she accused of having sexually abused her in her own childhood and now her daughter, but that unforeseen circumstances changed the mode of operation. She was the subject of seven more or less contradictory psychiatric experts opinions over a period of more than three years before finally being found criminally irresponsible by the court of assizes. She was suffering from delusional psychotic mental disorders at the time of the homicide-suicide. The authors discuss and criticize the conclusions of the experts opinions and instead recommend a multidisciplinary criminological analysis that takes all the objective ans subjective aspects on the case into account. © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS

Language: en

Keywords

adult; human; homicide; female; case report; infanticide; Homicide-suicide; Infanticide; clinical article; child sexual abuse; court; father; Criminal responsibility; delusional disorder; Article; Parricide; daughter; Clinical case; Behavioral analysis; Mental expertise