Filicide and criminal justice outcomes: Are maternal and paternal perpetrators treated differently?

Background: Most child homicides are committed by a perpetrator who has a maternal or paternal relationship with their victim which is commonly referred to as filicide. Previous research has examined differences in how maternal and paternal perpetrators are discussed in the media but there is a paucity of research comparing the treatment of maternal and paternal perpetrators in the criminal justice system.

Objective: The goal of this study is to examine whether criminal justice outcomes vary for male and female perpetrators of filicide.

Participants And Setting: This study examines 298 cases of filicide between 1985 and 2018 in Ontario, Canada.

Methods: Bivariate and multivariate analyses are used to compare charges, convictions, conviction types, sentence types, and sentence lengths imposed on maternal and paternal filicide perpetrators.

Results: Results show that maternal perpetrators are less likely to be convicted (Odds = 0.279, p < 0.01), less likely to be convicted of murder (Odds = 0.364, p < 0.01), less likely to receive a prison sentence (Odds = 0.087, p < 0.01), and receive sentences that are shorter on average (B = -2.183, p < 0.001) compared to paternal perpetrators.

Conclusions: Future research should examine how criminal justice actors weigh and consider the motives and broader social and structural factors that may lead to filicide when determining criminal justice outcomes. An integrated social role and medicalization framework may allow researchers to develop a better understanding of these results.