Psychiatrist Phillip Resnick on Why Parents Kill Their Own Kids

On Jan. 27, Julie Powers,
50, a mother of two in Tampa, drove her 13-year-old son, Beau, home
from soccer practice and allegedly shot him in the head "for talking
back" to her. Then she went upstairs and shot Calyx, her 16-year-old
daughter dead as she sat at her computer doing her homework, according
to an arrest affidavit. At the time, her husband was serving in Qatar as
an army colonel. Powers said her kids were "mouthy."
But what kind of parent would possibly murder her own children for
mouthing off? TIME spoke with Dr. Phillip Resnick, director of forensic
psychiatry at Case Western and a leading expert on parents who kill
their children. He testified for the defense in the case of Andrea Yates,
who was convicted in 2002 of drowning her five children in the bathtub.
The murder conviction was later overturned and she was found to be not
guilty by reason of insanity — as Resnick had argued.
Over the course of his 40-year career, Resnick has worked on 40 to 60
cases involving parents who killed their children. Although he cannot
offer a mental diagnosis or legal opinion in the Powers' case, he can
discuss the motivations of parents who kill and what we know about them.
About 250 to 300 children are murdered by their parents each year.
Does this seem to be a typical case of a mother who kills her children?
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/01/psychiatrist-phillip-resnick-on-why-parents-kill-their-own-kids/#ixzz1Cj061iJR