The Family Annihilator - Fathers Who Kill

June 14, 2007 by
L. Lee Scott  
L. Lee Scott
L. Lee Scott
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Blaming Others  |  Glasgow  |  Fathers and Daughters
Having discussed women who kill their children in another article (Mothers Who Kill Their Children), I feel it only fair to look at the other side. Fathers who kill their children, and frequently their wives as well, are known as "Family Annihilators" to criminal psychologists or
 psychiatrists, and to law enforcement. They are not mentally ill, but coldly calculating, and often spend months planning their crimes. Because they often kill themselves too, these crimes don't always make the news in media-friendly trials, but in the United States, there are 10 murder-suicides each week.

The major factors leading men to kill their families include impending divorce, male sexual jealousy, an obsession with control, and possessiveness, according to Dr. Jack Levin, a criminal psychology expert from North-Eastern University in Boston. A Scottish psychiatrist, and director of Priory Hospital in Glasgow. Scotland, Dr. Alex Yellowlees, says that there are definite differences between men and women who kill or harm their children. He says that women tend to be mentally ill, frequently suffering from post-partum depression. Men, on the other hand, feel rage, jealousy, hatred, and revenge when they kill their families.

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Interesting comment, Amanda. Thanks.
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Posted on 04/08/2009 at 5:04:48 PM

(The rest of my post) It also makes more sense, from an evolutionarily perspective, for nature to control the human overpopulation by making men unable to impregnate women rather that making women unable to become pregnant. Because, in the time it takes woman to mother a child, a man could have fathered countless children.
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Posted on 04/08/2009 at 4:04:03 PM

I would like to point out to the likes of JRDevo, that it's not as simple as a "... social emasculation of men over the last 30+ years..." There is something in the physical environment of industrialized countries that is changing the men of our cultures. In European countries, Japan, and The United States, the number of male births has declined every year for the last 30 years. The rates for genital defects, behavioral problems, autism, and ADD have all skyrocketed in males while remaining relatively constant in females. The average Generation "Y" male has a sperm count that is 50% lower than that of his father, and 85% of the sperm that he does have is genetically worthless. I believe it has to do with the low levels of radiation in the environment, While the Female ovaries are insulated from the presences of mild radiation, by layers of bone, muscle tissue, and fat. the Male testes are shielded by nothing more than the jeans the guy is wearing and the skin of the scrotum. It
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Posted on 04/08/2009 at 4:04:44 PM

Not everyone who kills, even when it's their entire family that ends up dead, meets the legal standard for "mentally ill." Most men who kill their families know that what they are doing is WRONG -- quite opposite the women who kill their children (and perhaps of more import -- NOT their husbands...). Go ahead, make excuses for men all you like. It doesn't change the facts, and I'd like to see the source of YOUR statistic, JRDevo. Defacto emasculation? Is that the same as women in the workplace? Is your boss (horrors!) a woman? Does your wife make more money than you? Tough life, isn't it? Men who kill have a reason, however wacko it may sound, and they're not considered crazy by legal standards. Women are convinced they're doing the right thing, and so are mentally ill by legal standards. Don't like it? Talk to your lawmakers.
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Posted on 04/07/2009 at 2:04:22 PM

I always find it exceedingly odd when people are clearly out of their minds are called "cold and calculating" but NOT "mentally ill." It's like saying something has scales and gills but isn't a fish.
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Posted on 04/06/2009 at 6:04:38 PM

The rise in male family annhilators may very well be a direct result of the defacto social emasculation of men over the last 30+ years. Corresponding male suicide rates are even more evidence, if not proof, of the same phenomenon. Sure - male annhilators have "different motives" - and this somehow matters to those who are killed? Is it somehow more acceptable that children and families are killed because "Mommy had 'real' problem" as opposed to men, who were simply enraged for some "unjustified" reason? (as though they somehow brazenly CHOSE to feel this way) Minimalizing the pathology of someone (and apparently hundreds every year) who decide to annhilate their families AND themsleves is a HUGE investigative and societal error! The flippant disregard for, and dismissal of the male psyche by current pop society is now producing bills to pay - and pay, and pay, and pay....
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Posted on 11/02/2007 at 3:11:00 AM

How horrible, yet, unfortunately true. Great job reporting. I hope this helps warn people in these dangerous relationships of the signs before it's too late.
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Posted on 07/13/2007 at 10:07:00 AM

How heinous, and yet very well written laurel. I do believe as your article reports that men's motives are different than womens. Horrible it is all horrible
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Posted on 06/21/2007 at 8:06:00 PM

To answer Deborah, women rarely kill their husbands the way family annihilators kill their wives (and nearly all kill their wives, unless the wife manages to escape). Women who kill their children because of post-partum depression and delusions usually do wait until the husband is either gone or sleeping, so that he won't stop them. And often do it when they are home alone with small children, and the depression and delusions overwhelm them, and they feel they have nowhere to turn for help (or that God has told them to kill the children, that He needs the children to be with Him). So it isn't just your perception; you're right on that.
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Posted on 06/20/2007 at 4:06:00 PM

In your research - was it more common for the male who kills his children to also kill his spouse than it was for a female who kills her children to also kill her spouse? It seems like more women go after their children when the men are away - or that is my perception!
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Posted on 06/20/2007 at 11:06:00 AM

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