| Summary: | 碩士 === 淡江大學 === 管理科學研究所企業經營碩士在職專班 === 96 === The present study was aimed to investigate the characteristics of parents (perpetrators) and children (victims) as well as motives and causes in filicide-suicide, based on news reports in Taiwan from 2002 to 2007. Cultural differences were taken into account by comparing filicide-suicide incidents in Taiwan, USA and Japan. Recommendations on suicide prevention strategy were also made based on research findings.
The current study focused on filicide-suicide incidents, in which the parent(s) murdered their biological children (aged 18 years old or under) and then commit suicide. Research data were collected from four of the largest newspaper publishers in Taiwan and news reports from internet from 1/1/2002 to 10/31/2007. Of total 78 filicide-suicide incidents found, 32.1% was the father, 50.0% was the mother, and 17.9% were both parents who murdered their children.
It was found that the primary motivation of filicide-suicide were “altruistic” (73.1%). Most of perpetrators were aged between 25 and 44 years old (74.4%), and children aged under twelve were most likely to be killed (45.1% were under six and 41.6% aged between 7 and 12). Charcoal burning was most commonly used (66.7%) method. Furthermore, economics and relationship problems in marriage were reported to be the most common factors (52.6% and 30.8%, respectively) in filicide-suicide.
The current study analyzed the characteristics of filicide-suicide in Taiwan and found that filicide-suicide was related to culture, economics, marriage or relationship problem and health issue. Based on the research findings, preventive strategies, family education and further research directions were suggested.
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