Why Kids Kill Parents

One question asked, prior to age 18, did you ever consider killing the abusive parent. Fully 50 percent--20 of the women--said yes, as an adolescent. Some reported they had even gone so far as to make plans.

We know that women are nowhere near as violent as men, yet fully 50 percent reported thoughts of murdering a parent. The interesting question is, would the incidence of thoughts be even higher among men?

These findings attest to the depth of feelings that abuse creates. It generates pain, fear, anger, and shame that many people spend a great deal of energy to contain over the course of their lives. Given the strength of the feelings abuse generates in its victims, the real question should be not why do kids kill their parents, but why don't more of them do it? Then we need to find out what insulates those who don't.

THE CASE OF SCOTT ANDERS

Scott Anders, a white boy from a lower-middle class neighborhood, was 15 when he killed his 36-year-old father. On the afternoon of the homicide, Scott confided to a friend that things at home had been 'building up." His father, Scott said, would come home 'real buzzed" on marijuana and cocaine. He would yell and threaten his son, even talk about killing him, and had done so for some time. Later that day, Mr. Anders smoked marijuana and screamed at the boy. Scott fled the house, telling his father he'd return, hoping he'd feel better. When Scott walked back through the front door, he saw that his father's 12-gauge shotgun was propped against the couch.

"When I got back, I walked in the door and he looked at me and started yelling at me, cussing me and everything, and telling me he was going to beat my ass, and that was the last thing I remember. He was just getting ready to light another joint when I grabbed the gun. I shot him. He went back and rolled over and blood poured out of his mouth. He blinked his eyes. I shot him again. Then I freaked out."

Scott ran out of the house and found his good friend Kirk. He told Kirk that he was going to commit suicide because "it kinda took a part of me away when I shot my dad." Kirk took the gun away from Scott and accompanied him back to the house. As he tried to determine Mr. Anders's condition, Kirk recalls Scott "screaming and crying and everything." The two called the police and Scott gave a complete confession. The grand jury decided to prosecute Scott as an adult and obtained indictments for one count of first-degree murder and another for possession of a firearm.

Scott Anders was the only child born to Lily and Chester Anders. When Scott was three, Mrs. Anders left, taking with her a boy and a girl from a previous marriage. During the four years following his mother's departure, Scott shuffled between relatives four times. His father remarried, and Scott moved in; his stepmother, Mary, is a woman he remembers fondly. But the marriage was not for long, and soon she, too, left. Mr. Anders then married "Marytwo," and Scott moved with them to a neighborhood known as a haven for drug dealers.

Scott "never got into baseball or nothing" and was unable to go to the Scouts or do other fun things because he was "always usually busy around the house. Helpin' with chores." Chores? "I swept, mopped, cleaned the yard, washed the car, cleaned the rooms, cleaned the garage, mowed the lawn, and helped out the neighbors with their chores."

Mr. Anders was an explosive man who had a history of both physically and verbally abusing women. Scott remembers his father referring to women as "sluts. He beat the shit out of them. No reason. He'd wake up grumpy and go to bed grumpy. Make the coffee wrong, he'd throw it in your face. You spent too much money at the store, he'd... he'd show you not to do it anymore." Scott maintained that his father threatened Marytwo with a gun several times and beat her more than a hundred times.