Bolzano – Not only national media are reporting on the Perselli / Neumair case. There is also interest beyond national borders: The Online edition of the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” also dealt with the parricide in Bolzano in a recent article.
Benno Neumair, the 30-year-old son of the couple, who has been in custody in the Bolzano prison for weeks, confessed to the crime. As part of the procedure, a psychiatric report is to be drawn up to determine whether he was sane at the time of the offense. Research is also carried out into a possible motif.
As part of an interview, the NZZ spoke to Kathleen Heide, professor of criminology at the University of South Florida, who has been studying the phenomenon of parricide for 35 years.
According to Heide, there are four categories of parent murders. The first case concerns juvenile perpetrators who have not yet reached the age of 20 and who in many cases have been sexually, psychologically or emotionally abused.
The second category consists of offenders under the age of 40 who still live with their parents and often suffer from severe mental disorders such as psychoses, schizophrenia or manic depression.
Anti-social offenders belong to the third category. You act out of selfish motives.
The fourth category includes people who kill out of anger: In these cases, murder occurs because they either fell victim to abuse themselves or had to watch it.
Heide recommends preparing a psychiatric report right at the beginning, as media reporting can often lead to an influence. She herself has already seen a prominent client being portrayed very benevolently in the media. In the subsequent psychiatric assessment, however, the opposite picture emerged.
As a reviewer, Heide spends three to eight hour meetings with suspects. It’s about building a relationship step by step. Only when this appears stable enough will the question of the motive of the murder be raised.
From: mk
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