Homicide at home: setting the agenda for an international collaboration to improve support for children bereaved due to family violence

Abstract

Background: Bereavement due to fatal family violence (e.g. intimate partner homicide, filicide, parricide, siblicide) is a profoundly disruptive experience for children, with lifelong psychosocial consequences. Although the need for fatal family violence prevention is increasingly recognised internationally, support for bereaved children in the aftermath remains fragmented, inconsistent and largely dependent on local service availability rather than individual needs. Caregivers, often coping with their own grief, face extraordinary demands without adequate guidance or resources. Objective: This paper seeks to draw attention to the urgent need to focus on children bereaved by fatal family vio..