Beyond non-accidental death: what filicide serious case reviews reveal about parental avoidance, agency and manipulation

This is the first research article in the UK to focus on cases where a child had experienced an extended period of physical abuse by a parent/stepparent prior to the incident leading to their death. It also highlights the various roles and strategies adopted by a parent/stepparent to avoid child protection intervention. From an initial content analysis of 1,107 UK serious case reviews (2017–2025), 15 cases where a child had been killed following up to 2 years of physical abuse by either a parent or/and stepparent were isolated. Findings presented in this article highlight how parents played a nuanced role of both victim and perpetrator of violence, misled child protection professionals, manipulated situations, and excluded extended family members (including biological fathers) from child protection processes. These findings indicate the need for a nuanced understanding of overlapping categories of victim/perpetrator and the development of social work processes requiring practitioners to critically evaluate the purpose and validity of all ‘voices’ and information shared throughout service involvement.