Portraits of pain: Children who kill family members

Somehow it seems as if the odds were against them. Were they destined to become killers of their own flesh and blood? What drives a young person to kill family members? Why do they commit such violent and heartless acts? Lives marred by psychological abuse, a lack of attachment with parents, neglect, difficulties growing up, complex circumstances, difficulty making friends, shattered intergenerational relationships, the author identifies what may have given rise to the events in the lives of these cases.
By making extensive use of in-depth case studies, based on interviews with various stakeholders, court and psychological records, visits to incarceration facilities, the author uses the lens of phenomenology to delve into the psyche of these young people in their teens and early twenties who committed recent murders that captured the attention of the southern African public.