Filicide in the Light of Family Criminology: A Jurisprudential Reappraisal, Institutional Redesign, and a Legal Model for Protecting Child Victims

Abstract

Filicide is one of the most severe forms of intrafamilial violence in which the family departs from its protective function and becomes a setting for the extreme victimization of children. This study aims to analyze filicide through the lens of family criminology, reconsider the jurisprudential and legal foundations of the paternal exemption from qisas, and develop a legal-institutional model for the effective protection of children. The research employs a descriptive-analytical method based on documentary analysis of legal rules, jurisprudential foundations, criminological literature, and institutional mechanisms of child protection. The findings indicate that filicide cannot be reduced to a single causal factor; rather, it results from the interaction of individual, familial, and socio-cultural conditions. Mental disorders, substance dependence, previous violence, family conflict, coercive control, economic pressures, and certain cultural understandings of parental authority may interact and intensify the risk of child victimization. At the legal level, Article 301 of the Islamic Penal Code and its reflection of the principle “la yuqd al-walid bi-waladih” constitute the principal challenge concerning the criminal response to paternal filicide. Although the jurisprudential basis of paternal exemption from qisas is recognized, the study demonstrates that this rule can be distinguished from the need for proportionate ta'zir punishment, preventive protection, and early intervention. The principal institutional deficiency lies in the fragmentation of responsibilities among welfare, judicial, and law-enforcement bodies and in the predominance of a reactive rather than preventive approach. Accordingly, the study proposes a “five-layer prevention and protection model” encompassing primary prevention, detection and reporting, prosecution and criminal response, victim protection, and continuous monitoring. It also proposes the establishment of “Child Navigators” as a coordinating mechanism for risk identification, assessment, inter-agency coordination, referral, and continuous case follow-up. The study concludes that effective child protection requires the integration of family criminology, criminal-policy reform, and an institutional structure capable of intervening before family violence escalates into lethal victimization.