Longitudinal Analysis of Australian Filicide Perpetration Trends: Filicide in Victoria, 1860–1920

• Main Authors: Victoria Maria Nagy, Georgina Rychner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Queensland University of Technology 2021-06-01
• Series: International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy
• Subjects: filicide; historical criminology; female offending; australia; fathers
• Online Access: https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/1642

The historical examination of filicide in Australia is limited and often focuses on case studies of maternal filicides. Longitudinal trends of Australian filicide offending have focused almost exclusively on the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Our study aims to fill a gap in Australian criminological knowledge about filicide. Utilising prison and Supreme Court records from 1860 and 1920, we plot the extent of filicide offending by men and women in Victoria to create a more comprehensive picture of filicide perpetration. This study also tests whether identified motives and risk factors for filicide today can be applied to historical data, to make these data accessible to criminologists studying filicide in the twenty-first century.