What would lead a father to kill to his kids?
Paul Appelbaum: There’s relatively limited research on men who kill their children. What we do know about the behavior is that broadly, these men tend to fall into one of two categories: One, fathers with a serious mental illness such as depression or psychosis who are led by their illnesses. A severely depressed father may believe that he’s a poor provider, condemning his children to a life of poverty and unhappiness, so he feels like the killing is an altruistic act to save them from a miserable life. And it is very likely that the father will commit suicide after he kills his kids. One thing you can say about the Luong case is that he should be watched very carefully for suicidal impulses. Psychosis, such as schizophrenia, psychotic depression or a bipolar psychotic disorder, can lead to the delusion that he has been ordered by God to kill his children. So in a psychotic way, the father is still doing this for the sake of their children. The second group is associated with the physi
