https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X16672444 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 2018, Vol. 62(4) 915–934 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0306624X16672444 journals.sagepub.com/home/ijo Article Exploring Fatal and Non-Fatal Violence Against Parents: Challenging the Orthodoxy of Abused Adolescent Perpetrators Amanda Holt 1 and Phillip C. Shon 2 Abstract An examination of scholarly literature concerning fatal violence (i.e., parricide) and non- fatal violence toward parents reveals dominant themes of mental illness, child abuse, and pathology based on a research paradigm that focuses on adolescent perpetrators and, to a lesser extent, elderly victims. This article presents a critical analysis of this literature and argues for a more contextualized approach to the study of violence against parents. It is argued that criminologists should widen their methodological lens to examine this issue from a life course perspective and draw on conceptual tools such as developmental pathways, sources of conflict, and intersectionality to allow for an analysis that can offer new ways of thinking about violence toward parents. Keywords parricide, parent abuse, violence against parents (VAP), intersectionality, youthcentric violence Parent abuse refers to a “pattern of behavior that uses verbal, financial, physical or emotional means to practice power and exert control over a parent” (Holt, 2013, p. 1), whereas parricide refers to the killing of a parent or a stepparent by an offspring (Shon, 2014). Although the connection between parent abuse and parricide may seem obvious, given that both operate along a spectrum of violence toward parents, such logical and expected links have not been made in the divergent sets of literature. 1 University of Roehampton, London, UK 2 University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada Corresponding Author: Amanda Holt, Department of Social Sciences, University of Roehampton, London SW15 5PU, UK. Email: amanda.holt@roehampton.ac.uk 672444IJO XX X 10.1177/0306624X16672444International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyHolt and Shon research-article 2016