Filicide: Study Shows Shocking Truth about Killer Parents

A shocking study reveals that for the past three decades, American parents have killed their own children approximately 3,000 times every year. This research is the first comprehensive statistical overview of the tragic phenomenon, known as filicide, according to the Times of India.

The study was based on filicide in the United States and a comprehensive analysis of the issue that examines 32 years of data involving more than 94,000 arrests. Researchers also looked at the database of FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports as part of their examination.

Findings showed that a total of 632,017 arrests were made between 1976 and 2007, with 14.9 percent of them (94,146) due to filicides. The report also showed that male children were more likely to be killed than female children, with nearly 11 percent of filicide victims being stepchildren.

Fathers were more likely to be offenders than mothers at 78.3 percent of the cases. Fathers were also more likely to kill an older child, particularly ones that had reached adulthood.   

The most common weapons for filicide included the use of "personal weapons" such as beating, drowning or chocking the victim. In fact, findings showed that approximately 69 percent of murdered infants were killed via the involvement of a "personal weapon."

For adult children, the use of firearms for murder was more common, at approximately 72 percent of cases.

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Forensic Science.