‘Just Say Goodbye’ (January 2013 online edition)

‘Just Say Goodbye’parents’ separation. 43 For instance, Bourget and Gagne (2005) found 55 per centof filicides in the mental illness category followed separation. As stated earlier,placing these cases in the mental illness category may obscure the significanceof separation as a contributing factor.NSW research has shown separation was a precipitating factor in a fifth offilicides (Lawrence & Fattore 2002). A study in Victoria found that when afather kills his children, it is often where the couple is separated or where theman believes separation is likely to occur (Alder & Polk 2001).International research also shows separation is a significant factor. Bourgetand Gagne’s study of fathers who kill their children in Canada found a ruptureof the marital relationship had recently occurred in 40 per cent of the cases. Alarge study in the Netherlands found 25 per cent of fathers killed their childrenin reaction to threatened separation or divorce (Liem & Koenraadt 2008). 44 ACanadian study found men who killed their children were more likely to havegone through a separation in the year preceding the offence than women whokilled their children (Leveillee et al. 2007). Putkonen et al. (2011) also foundthat separation was more likely to be a factor in filicides by fathers than filicidesby mothers. The study of filicides by Dispatches in the UK (see p 31) highlightsseparation as a dangerous time for children (Ferguson 2009).There is a lack of clarity about what ‘separation’ means and how it is determinedacross various filicide studies, so that some studies may be referring to literalseparation in which one partner has left the relationship and others may includecases in which separation was pending or a source of conflict in the relationship.It is often difficult to ascertain if separation was simply a circumstance, or a factorwhich contributed to the perpetrator’s reasons for killing the child. Separationis a recurring theme in filicide literature but it is not adequately examined.More in-depth qualitative studies that examine familicide or filicides thatspecifically occur in the context of separation provide useful insight into thisissue. For instance, Websdale (2010), whose study of familicide in the US wasoutlined earlier, found that in 85 per cent of ‘livid coercive’ cases for whichhe had data, the perpetrator’s partner was leaving or distancing themselvesfrom the relationship. The perpetrators saw this as abandonment and in someinstances as betrayal (Websdale 2010).Australian researcher Carolyn Johnson (2005) examined cases where fathershad killed their children after family breakdown. She undertook in-depthanalysis of seven West Australian cases involving the deaths of 15 children. Thefather committed suicide in six cases and attempted suicide in the remaining43 Filicides that occur in response to separation are not reflected in the existing classification systems unless they aredeemed to be retaliatory. As outlined earlier, it may be difficult for researchers to ascertain retaliation as a motive.44 It was also found that over a third of the men and more than half the women were diagnosed as mentally ill atthe time of the killing.33