Murder-suicide a masculinity issue: expert
MEN who murder their wives and children before killing themselves see it as a way of gaining control, a respected criminologist said last night.
Dr Marilyn Gregory, speaking to the Irish Daily Mail about men who kill their families in an act murder-suicide, said: ‘It is a question that they feel they have lost everything and when they decide to kill themselves they often decide to take with them all the people that are important.
‘They think, “I am going to depart this world and take everything and everyone with me.” It is family annihilation.’
Dr Gregory, now retired from Sheffield University, added: ‘Murder-suicide is an issue of masculinity and the loss of control, in my opinion. They [the perpetrators] tend to appear to have a lot going for them. So when something goes wrong like a marriage breakdown or losing a job, they feel as if their control is being lost.
‘They see murder-suicide – killing their family – is their last way of gaining control.
‘They often believe they are regaining control in their last ever act.’
In her essay, Masculinity And Homicide Suicide, published in the esteemed International Journal Of Law Crime And Justice, Dr Gregory outlined how men’s self-image may be to blame for such actions.
She previously said: ‘There is this idea of all men aspiring to the dominant form of masculinity. They have to be strong, successful, in control and macho. Men who aspire to be like this are much more likely to turn to the extreme when they see control being lost. They turn to suicide when they see their masculinity diminishing, or their manhood being threatened.
‘This can be over a woman leaving, a court case, or financial status.’
Dr Gregory previously pointed to a difference between male and female murder-suicide killers when speaking to The Irish Mail on Sunday, saying: ‘In the cases where women take the lives of their children, which is very rare, they are depressed.
‘In the majority of cases with men, they are not suffering from mental health problems. These are ordinary men taking an extraordinary course of action.’
Dr Gregory also maintained that the decision to take a child’s life is not made suddenly. She said at the time: ‘The research I have done shows there is always a considerable degree of planning in these cases.
‘This is not a snap decision. He churns over the decision to take his own life and resolves the issue.’
She said the man often ‘enters into a state of misguided altruism’ where he thinks, ‘I will take my child with me’ as he doesn’t want to leave them.
Dr Gregory said there is a certain profile that most of the men who carry out murder-suicides fit. They are good providers who would appear to neighbours to be dedicated husbands and devoted fathers.
But Dr Gregory added: ‘When the person is in the actual act of killing the child, they are very deranged. These people get into a desperate state of mind and when they decide that they are going to kill children, the children become a possession of the marriage, almost.’