Definition and statistics
Family annihilators are a specific type of familicide perpetrator. Forensic psychiatrist Park Elliott Dietz first introduced the term in 1986. He characterized family annihilators as typically the senior male of the household who is struggling with mental health issues and who kills each family member present, sometimes including pets. After murdering the others, he may commit suicide or force law enforcement to kill him.
Between 1900 and 1999, there were 909 mass murder incidents in the U.S. (defined as four victims within a 24-hour period). Of those, more than half occurred within an immediate family. Although the familicide cases are relatively rare, they are the most common form of mass killings. However, statistical data are difficult to establish due to reporting discrepancies.
Familicide differs from other forms of mass murder in that the murderer kills family members or loved ones rather than strangers. This has a different psychodynamic and psychiatric significance, but the distinction is not always made.
A study of 30 cases in Ohio found that most of the killings were motivated by a parent's desire to stop their children's suffering. According to ABC News contributor and former FBI agent Brad Garrett, people responsible for killing their families tend to be males in their 30s. Many of these crimes occur in August, before school starts, which may delay detection and investigation.
In Australia, a study was done of seven cases of familicide followed by suicide in which marital separation followed by custody and access disputes were identified as an issue. Some common factors such as marital discord, unhappiness, domestic violence, sexual abuse, threats of harm to self or others were found in varying degrees. It was not clear what could be done in terms of prevention.
Birmingham City University researchers Elizabeth Yardley, David Wilson, and Adam Lynes co-authored "A taxonomy of male British family annihilators, 1980–2013", examining British familicides in the period. Newspaper articles were used as references. The study concluded that most of the perpetrators were male. Men who murder their entire families usually do so because they believe their spouse performed a wrongdoing and that the spouse needs to be punished, they feel that the family members caused a disappointment, they feel that their own financial failings ruined the point of having a family, and because they wish to save their family from a perceived threat.
Far fewer women commit familicide, and those who do usually have different reasons, including perceived or imagined loss of custody of children. Male family annihilators are typically driven by loss of control, including financial crises, separation or divorce, and may demonstrate evidence for domestic violence, while for women perpetrators, battery, abuse or mental illness is more common, the act itself more likely premeditated and more likely to include victims under the age of one.
A literature review done in 2018 noted contextual and offense characteristics of familicide. Among the 63 articles reviewed 74–85% noted relationship problems or separation. This article also found evidence of financial problems, intoxication, and use of firearms. This literature review unveiled that 71% of these offenses were motivated in regard to conflict between parents and 29% associated to the perpetrators' situation in life. Lastly this article reported two studies, one of which found that many of the motives involved feelings of abandonment, psychosis, and narcissistic rage. The other study found that 60% of these perpetrators were suicidal and 40% homicidal.
Narrative
Yardley, Wilson, and Lynes divide familicides into four groups: anomic, disappointed, self-righteous, and paranoid.
In this typology, the "anomic" killer sees his family purely as a status symbol; when his economic status collapses, he sees them as surplus to requirements. The "disappointed" killer seeks to punish the family for not living up to his ideals of family life. The "self-righteous" killer destroys the family to exact revenge upon the mother, in an act that he blames on her. Finally, the "paranoid" killer kills their family in what they imagine to be an attempt to protect them from something even worse.
