http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1393986.htm

Family murder-suicides about control, social worker says	PRINT FRIENDLY	EMAIL STORY
The World Today - Thursday, 16 June , 2005  12:47:39 Reporter: David Weber ELEANOR HALL: A Perth social worker has been delving into the emotional area of family murder suicides to try to find out why they happen. In a new book being launched today, Carolyn Harris Johnson, investigates seven cases in which where a man murders his children and commits suicide after a relationship breakdown. Ms Johnson says the ultimate act of revenge is often unexpected because the warning signs have been missed.  David Weber reports from Perth that the Chief Judge of the Western Australian Family Court will launch the book this afternoon. DAVID WEBER: Carolyn Harris Johnson says she found that in all the cases, domestic violence was under-reported. She says any threats to harm a partner or the children need to be taken very seriously. CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: It certainly was under-reported and minimised where it was reported, even to the point where I was interviewing women, and they'd say initially there was no domestic violence, and then they'd go on to give me accounts of quite horrific examples of stalking, violence and threats. DAVID WEBER: There were threats before murders were carried out then? CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: Certainly. There were threats to harm the woman, threats to kill her. Threats to kill the children and also suicidal threats by the perpetrator.  DAVID WEBER: Ms Johnson says the threats to kill or harm came way before the separation occurred. She found that the men believed that the family was theirs to control. CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: He wasn't going to let her leave and I think the offences have a lot more to do with proprietary attitude of the males towards their families and the need to control them, than it has to do with anything else.  At the same time, when women start to talk to men about their dissatisfaction with a relationship and perhaps try to get the man to go to counselling to address the issues, it's often very hard for women to get men to do that. DAVID WEBER: The whole thing is about a loss of control really, and this is like the final act of control in a way? CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: Absolutely. But I think that what we must remember is the incidence of this kind of familicide is actually very low, and even though the cases are shocking, and involve multiple loss of life, thankfully they don't occur too often. DAVID WEBER: The research suggests that the woman who's been left behind never gets over the trauma. One of the ways that survivors cope is to help others who find themselves in a similar kind of situation.  Carolyn Harris Johnson says there's also a long-term impact on the extended family. CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: For us as adults, it's very hard to understand what would motivate a parent to kill a child. But for a child it's even harder and I've heard of cases where in the extended family, there's been marital separations and the women in that family have just been quite unable to allow their kids to go and have access to their father, even though that child's father might have been quite loving and never made any threats of any kind.  DAVID WEBER: Do men do this more than women? CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: Men commit familicide following separation much, much more frequently than women. There's very few cases of that recorded anywhere.  DAVID WEBER: It would seem that Ms Johnson's research dispels two myths about familicide.  One is that familicide is caused by a legal dispute about custody. Ms Johnson found that not all the cases had been to the Family Court, and there was only one where custody was in dispute. And she found a lack of contact wasn't a causing factor because the men were using their access to the children to kill them.  She believes she's also countered another widely held view. CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: One of the other myths is that familicide is caused by love, that the extreme love the father feels for the children means that he can't bear to be separated from them, and that somehow he kills them out of that kind of emotional response. But that really doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and the research doesn't really bear that out either. ELEANOR HALL: Social worker Carolyn Harris Johnson speaking to David Weber in Perth about her new book, Come With Daddy.