Why people kill their parents according to a criminologist

In Britain, the vast majority (88 percent) of homicide victims are men. But in cases of parricide, the victims are just as likely to be mothers as fathers. It is usually older sons (average age 38) who kill their mothers. “Generally speaking, older mothers in their mid to late 60s are the victims,” Condry says. “This is often because they are caring for adult sons who are at the extreme end of mental illness. Mothers are often the ‘last woman’ in these situations, where a son has alienated everyone else in his life and needs support from his mother – not only in terms of his health, but also in his daily life, such as keeping appointments . When these relationships become violent, there are not enough systems in place to alert authorities or help the mother. Mothers are often less likely to report their son’s violence.”

It is rarely planned

The Menendez brothers are depicted in the show as calculated (if clumsy) planners. The brothers draw inspiration from Billionaire Boys Cluba film about parricide. They buy firearms and plan their alibis over a longer period of time before committing the murders. According to Condry, such foresight is very rare.

“Eldericide is usually not very calculated,” she says. “There is often a spontaneous violent episode that got out of hand. In all our research in Britain we have seen no cases of siblings conspiring to commit parricide. They have always been an individual child acting alone.”

It’s not about the money

José Menendez was an executive at RCA Records and had reportedly amassed more than $14 million in wealth. The Netflix series sees Erik and Lyle indulge in a wild spending spree after the murder of their parents. At the time of their arrest, the media narrative focused on the brothers’ financial greed, but parricide in pursuit of an inheritance is rare. “People often assume that people kill their parents for money,” Condry says. “But that’s because one-off cases like the Menendez murders give meaning to a deeply disturbing crime that most people don’t want to think about. Understanding that it is a transactional killing for financial gain provides a simplistic explanation. The reality may be even more terrifying: Sometimes people with extreme mental illness kill their parents in a state of rage or delusion.”

Delusions and schizophrenia

Erik and Lyle Menendez’s crimes were characterized by their legal teams as acts of self-defense against their abusive father. So-called ‘retaliation killings’ are less common in Britain, where 74 percent of children who kill their parents have a mental illness. In the vast majority of these cases, their mental state is considered legally causal. “Our data suggest that parricide in response to parental abuse is rarer here than in the United States,” Condry said. ‘This may be because crime investigations do not always look back at family history and determine whether there was abuse. But what we see more of are adult children suffering from the extremes of mental illness such as delusions and schizophrenia. Their parents are often responsible for their care, which can put them in a very vulnerable position. Not enough is being done to protect parents who are caregivers of mentally ill adult children.”