Most child homicides result from abuse: study
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About 40 per cent of child homicides are the result of physical abuse by a male relative. (ABC News)
A new report on the instance of child homicide in Australia has found that in most cases it is the result of the physical abuse of children.
A team of psychiatrists from St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney examined the circumstances surrounding 165 child homicides over a 15-year period to 2005.
Doctor Olav Neilsson says they found that in almost 40 per cent of cases, the homicides were the result of children being physically abused by either a father of stepfather.
"A range from the fatal assault of an infant who wouldn't stop crying through to ongoing physical violence that finally resulted in a fatal injury," he said.
Dr Neilson says a large group of offenders were mentally ill and having their first ever episode of psychosis.
He says authorities should intervene in these cases and possibly use the Mental Health Act to force the parent into treatment and remove the child from their care.
"We found that 75 per cent had seen some kind of mental health worker in the previous two weeks, and really it was the failure to intervene that in many cases seemed to result in these tragic events," he said.
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