February 25th 2014 01:13 PM
... A new paper in Forensic Science International ... is a statistical analysis of filicide in the United States ... The aim was to .. identify patterns and .. warning signs ... Women kill infants as often as men .. and step-children are not more likely to be killed ... The authors .. looked at 632,017 arrests between 1976 and 2007, finding that 94,146 cases (14.9 percent) were filicides. The database includes .. ages, genders, and races of the victims and alleged offenders, as well as the means employed to commit the murder ... 72 percent of the children killed were age 6 or younger and around 33 percent were infants ... Male children were more likely to be killed (58.3 percent) and only about 11 percent of victims were stepchildren ...
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/filicide_32_year_analysis_parents_murdering_their_kids-130453

... Contrary to popular belief, stepchildren and biological children are at equal risk of being victims of filicide. And though very young children are often thought of as filicide’s victims, in reality about one-fifth of victims are adults. These common misconceptions about filicide are discredited by a recent study conducted by Mariano and other University forensic psychiatrists. The study, published in this month’s edition of the journal Forensic Science International, analyzed over 90,000 filicide cases that took place over a 32-year period. The researchers, based out of the Med School, used the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Supplementary Homicide Reports to compile data on the offenders and victims in filicide cases from 1976 to 2007 ...
Filicides account for 15 percent of homicides, study finds
By ANDREW JONES
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Monday, March 3, 2014

... the total number of cases in the country has remained relatively stable at around 500 a year ... Not only has the number drifted somewhat downward since the early 1990s, but also the numbers did not climb with population growth over the last three decades ...
Analysis: 32 years of U.S. filicide arrests
February 25, 2014

or NOT.

in the US over several decades, perhaps 500, which is large enough for meaningful study

OTOH only a tiny sample of clear "honor killings" have been identified in the US in recent years, so we have little data there

Unless better data becomes available, we're unlikely to identify clear risk factors for "honor killing," nor are we likely to have any good basis for educating people about what to look for as warning signs for "honor killing"

The study I cited suggests something like 82% of the children killed by parents are under 18, with 62% aged 6 or younger. This gives a sample of about 400 a year killed under age of majority, with about 50 a year between 7 and 18, which might be enough to identify risk factors, at least tentatively, for potentially filicidal parents

So we might actually have enough data there to find some general diagnostics for children at risk of murder-by-parent

When a religion teaches that blasphemy earns the death penalty, that religion is evil.
When a religion teaches that a despoiled female merits death by stoning, that religion evil.

All of that is true, regardless of statistical factoids regarding parents murdering children.

Because parents kill their children anyway?

Is that your point?

Because how dare anyone criticize misogynistic religions?

It's just a woman after all. Nothing to see here.

the point was about statistics.

This style of argument is in bad faith.

perpetrators.

Its also no surprise that a significant fraction of homicides are committed by family members against family members, of all types of relationships. I would say that religion/cultural ideology can motivate such crimes and we should attack such sources of motivation. Would you not agree?

since in the US only about 50 children aged 7-18 are killed by parents annually, honor killings of girls under age of majority are likely to be quite rare. Unless clear data emerges showing otherwise, the reasonable course of action is to try to understand and publicize general warning signs for potential filicide

Do you have a problem with the article pointing out religious misogyny and the horror this woman's life became because of it?

Why do you always try to deflect whenever religion is criticized?

To defend religion. SMFH...

Poor girl, I do hope she is ok. I can't even say what I think about a religion that would cause parents to be murderous toward their own children.

Hope she's ok.

That's a common trick to escape law enforcement. "She jumped off the balcony"

A woman is just as likely to be killed by her brother or another family member to uphold the family "honor."

When I lived in Egypt, one famous honor killing took place in a village I passed thru twice a day on my way to work. An 18-yr-old woman ran off to Alexandria with her boyfriend. Her father and brother followed her and begged her to come home, all is forgiven, etc. etc. She went back home and shortly after, on the village main street in front of many witnesses, her brother put a gun to her head and shot her. He got a sentence of 2 years in jail, IIRC, and returned to his village a hero. That was fairly common in Egypt, especially in the rural areas.

Here, I can Goggle-Gish-Gallop myself...

vile religion.

it is rare and even so in Muslim societies. Not a good time for this as it just makes people worse in their potential treatment of ordinary Muslims.

Cracked has some valuable posts. Praying for that poor girl