Parricide — killing a parent — is rare but shocking. Criminologist Kathleen Heide estimates parricides make up about 2% of U.S. homicides, with double parricide representing roughly 8% of those cases. Heide outlines four offender types: abused and trapped individuals, those with severe psychosis, instrumental or selfish killers, and people who act out of explosive rage. She cautions that media narratives often simplify complex motivations and that careful forensic and clinical evaluation is needed to understand each case.
Why Children Kill Their Parents: The Psychology of Parricide — From Lizzie Borden to the Reiners
Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, left, and Nick Reiner during a court appearance. (Getty Images)
Parricide — the killing of one's mother or father — is among the most disturbing and culturally taboo crimes. High-profile cases such as Lizzie Borden and the alleged 2025 murders of Rob and Michele Singer Reiner, for which their son Nick Reiner is due to stand trial, draw outsized public attention. But experts say the phenomenon is rare and far more complex than headlines suggest.
How Common Is Parricide?
Criminologist Kathleen Heide, a pioneering authority on parent killers and author of Why Kids Kill Parents (1992) and Understanding Parricide (2012), notes that parricide accounts for only about 2% of U.S. homicides. Of those cases, roughly 15% involve female offenders. Double parricide — the killing of both parents — is even less common, representing roughly 8% of parricides. Heide estimates there are about 250 parricides a year in the United States.
Why the Public Is So Fascinated
Heide attributes sustained interest to several factors: the shock of a child harming the people who gave them life, the violation of deep cultural taboos (including religious injunctions to honor one’s parents and not to kill), and the intimate, often domestic settings in which these crimes occur. Cases involving brutality or upper-middle-class families — such as the Borden case — intensify public curiosity.
Four Offender Profiles
Based on decades of casework and research, Heide divides parricide offenders into four broad categories. These are heuristic types that help explain motives and mental states but do not capture every case’s complexity.
1. Abused and Trapped
These offenders — juveniles or adults — have typically suffered long-term, severe abuse and feel there is no escape. Many have tried running away, sought help from authorities, contemplated suicide, or told others about the abuse before concluding that murder is the only way out. In some cases the killing is framed as a desperate attempt to end ongoing harm or to protect siblings.
2. Psychotic or Severely Mentally Ill
This group includes individuals with chronic, grave mental illness who experience delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, or commanding voices. They may believe, for example, that a parent is an impostor or that a supernatural force has ordered them to kill. In forensic evaluations these defendants often present a long-standing history of psychotic symptoms.
3. Instrumental or Selfish Killers
Instrumental offenders commit parricide for tangible, self-serving goals: to remove a parental obstacle to a relationship, to obtain money or property, or to pursue a criminal plan. Heide cites juvenile cases in which teens killed to avoid parental restrictions on dating. These acts are typically pragmatic and marked by short-sighted reasoning rather than moral deliberation.
4. Explosive Rage
These perpetrators harbor deep anger, often from past mistreatment that is no longer ongoing. Rage can erupt unexpectedly and may be fueled by drugs or alcohol. The resulting violence is frequently impulsive rather than premeditated.
“It’s very, very rare,” Heide says of parricide. “And thank God for that.”
Caution About Simplistic Readings
Heide warns against drawing definitive conclusions from media reports. What appears to be a textbook motive in headlines often turns out to be far more complicated on close examination. Forensic evaluation, family history, mental-health records, and detailed timelines are essential to understand any individual case.
Context and Sensitivity
Because these crimes involve family members and intimate settings, reporting and discussion should balance public interest with sensitivity toward victims and due process for the accused. Dramatizations can feed curiosity but may oversimplify motives or sensationalize violence; Heide prefers documentary evidence and clinical accounts when studying parricide.
The subject is troubling precisely because it challenges assumptions about family, loyalty, and human nature. Understanding the psychological and social drivers behind parricide can help legal professionals, clinicians, and communities identify risk factors and, where possible, prevent escalation to lethal violence.
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