Abstract

The killing of fathers and mothers, particularly by juveniles, always generates national concern. In the same way, filicide is a tragic form of violence with a shocking frequency in different cultures worldwide. Brazilian studies on these subjects are very scarce, although several cases of family violence have been reported by the communication means. Also, despite the interest in these topics, most of the scholarly works have been limited to analyses involving clinical samples with a few participants. Certainly, this harms an adequate development of proposals for prevention and management of family crimes. In addition, the recording of official statistics tends to be unreliable and the range of data recorded limited. The aim of this chapter is to review some aspects of parricides and filicides, including the role of alcohol and drug misuse among perpetrators.