Child homicides in Romania, Bucharest 2005-2015

ABSTRACT

Child homicide is a rare but nevertheless tragic event with serious effects on families and the community. The study focuses on investigating the prevalence and circumstances of child homicide in Bucharest. It draws on data from the General Department of Bucharest Police Homicide Division and a systematic online search of news outlets in the years 2005 to 2015. The information available included the victim’s and offender’s name, their age, relationship and occupation and the modus operandi. This information was used to identify news reports that complement the police data. In total, 15 homicides of children were identified to have been committed in Bucharest. All homicides were identified from police records and for seven homicides additional information from the news media was available. Of these 15 child homicides, ten were infanticides, a murder of a child 10 month old, one of a 4 years old and two were adolescents. Three children were female. The child’s mother committed the homicides in the majority of the cases, other perpetrators included grandmothers and acquaintances. For five of the homicides the perpetrator victim relationship was unknown. This study contributed to the gap of knowledge on child homicides by describing child homicides occurring in Bucharest.

KEYWORDS:

• Child homicide
• infanticides
• Bucharest
• police files
• newspaper search

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted with support from the KNOW Violence against Children initiative through the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine;Know Violence in Childhood Initiative;