Fatal Family Violence and the Dementias

<p>This book explores dementia-related aggression violence and homicide through a detailed analysis of gray mist killings. The term gray mist killing refers to intimate partner homicides (IPHs) committed by spouses/partners suffering from dementia homicides of dementia sufferers committed by their caregiving spouses/partners or other family members and IPHs attributable to the complications of caring for a co-resident family member suffering from dementia.</p><p>Killings by people with dementia raise questions about the role of biological psychological and sociological forces. This book therefore encourages discussions around the relative weighting of these interrelated forces and why the criminal justice system and the courts have a hard time handling these killings. It also adds to our understanding of the social responses to people with dementia the orchestration of services the nature of caring and the interaction between sufferers and those familial community and state actors that provide support and care. The vividly detailed case studies (from the US UK and Australia) uniquely inform criminological debates about violence homicide and the social responses to these complex phenomena. They are organized around the apparent motives for the killing such as mercy theft prior intimate partner violence mental illness and exhaustion. The social responses of families communities and state actors are examined and contextualized against what researchers and dementia specialists suggest are promising or best practices for intervention. Apparent triggers or circumstantial precipitants for the killings invite discussion of signals risks and preventive interventions. The book culminates in an attempt to make sense of gray mist killings as well as a discussion of broader implications and significance in relation to globalization violence against women the rising prevalence of the dementias declining birthrates climate change and sustainable economic development.</p><p>Drawing from a variety of disciplines this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of criminology sociology psychology psychiatry anthropology gender studies social work law public policy and gerontology. It should also appeal to judges prosecutors lawyers social workers gerontologists law enforcement adult protective services physicians psychologists and psychiatrists.</p><p>The Open Access version of this book available at http: //www.taylorfrancis.com has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.</p>