Faculty of Medicine, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda.
Department of Psychiatry, Uganda Christian University, Kampala, Uganda.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Aug 6;24(1):2125. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-19625-0.
Filicide, the act of a parent or parental figure killing their child, has been reported in various African countries. However, there is a lack of comprehensive reviews on the prevalence and associated factors of filicide across the African continent, which is characterized by diverse cultural beliefs and practices. This review aims to examine the prevalence and risk factors of filicide in Africa.
This review included studies on filicide in Africa, identified through searches in various databases (PubMed, Scopus, Africa Journal Online, and Google Scholar) using relevant keywords. The Mendeley reference manager was used to organize all identified articles and remove duplicate entries. A two-round screening process was conducted by two independent reviewers, with the final set of articles selected through mutual agreement. The quality of the studies was then assessed.
Out of the 107 retrieved articles, only 15 were included in the review. These studies revealed diverse prevalence rates: 3.7% of total homicides, 1.38% of deaths from family violence, and 13.02% for autopsied children. Various potential risk factors for filicide were identified, including unwanted pregnancies, marital conflicts, family disputes and violence, low socio-economic status, mental health issues in perpetrators, and mental, physical, or neurological vulnerabilities in victims. Cultural beliefs were also recognized as contributing factors to filicide.
Filicide is a complex and multi-dimensional issue influenced by various individual, familial, and societal factors. The review highlighted a high prevalence of filicide in Africa, shaped by these diverse factors.
在各个非洲国家都有父母或其养育者杀害子女的杀亲案件报告。然而，由于非洲大陆文化信仰和习俗多样，目前缺乏对整个非洲大陆杀亲案件发生率和相关因素的全面综述。本综述旨在调查非洲的杀亲案件发生率和风险因素。
本综述纳入了在非洲发生的杀亲案件研究，通过在多个数据库（PubMed、Scopus、Africa Journal Online 和 Google Scholar）中使用相关关键词进行检索来识别这些研究。Mendeley 参考文献管理器用于组织所有已识别的文章，并删除重复条目。通过两名独立审查员进行两轮筛选，通过共同协议选择最终的文章。然后评估研究的质量。
在检索到的 107 篇文章中，仅有 15 篇被纳入综述。这些研究揭示了不同的发生率：总凶杀案的 3.7%、家庭暴力导致的死亡的 1.38%和尸检儿童的 13.02%。确定了各种杀亲案件的潜在风险因素，包括意外怀孕、婚姻冲突、家庭纠纷和暴力、社会经济地位低、犯罪者的心理健康问题以及受害者的精神、身体或神经脆弱性。文化信仰也被认为是杀亲案件的促成因素。
杀亲是一个复杂的多维度问题，受到各种个人、家庭和社会因素的影响。综述强调了非洲杀亲案件的高发生率，这些发生率受到这些多样化因素的影响。
