Arizona HB 2995, the Alec and Lydia Act, would force family courts to weigh domestic violence and coercive control before parenting time.
Familicide
Familicide — also called family annihilation — is the killing of multiple family members, typically a partner and one or more children, by a single perpetrator. It is one of the most severe endpoints of coercive control and intimate partner violence, and one of the most consequential in its casualty count. Research consistently shows that up to 95% of familicide perpetrators are male, that between 87% and 100% of adult victims are women, and that the crime is almost always preceded by a documented pattern of coercive control, domestic violence, and intimate partner abuse (Boyd et al., 2024; Logan et al., 2019).
Familicide is not an explosion of momentary rage from an otherwise peaceful household. The research is unambiguous on this point: most familicides involve a high degree of premeditation, are rooted in histories of controlling and abusive behavior, and occur at specific and predictable inflection points — most commonly separation, divorce, impending custody proceedings, or the loss of financial control. The perpetrator’s motivation is not despair alone. It is the refusal to relinquish control over people he has defined as his possessions. The killing is the final act of that control.
Risk factors identified in peer-reviewed research include a history of coercive control, non-fatal strangulation, forcing sex, access to firearms, suicide threats directed at the partner, and the presence of separation or divorce proceedings (Monckton-Smith, 2021; Logan et al., 2019). These are not unpredictable. They are warning signs that, when responded to early, represent intervention points. The failure to intervene is not only a personal tragedy — it is a system failure.
On April 19, 2026, a man in Shreveport, Louisiana shot and killed eight people — including seven of his own children — the night before he and his wife were scheduled to appear in court to finalize their divorce. He had previously threatened to kill her and the children if she ever left him. The threat had been made. The system did not act on it. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in Louisiana history.
Familicide is not a private tragedy. It is a public health emergency and a coercive control endpoint that legislation, training, and early intervention exist to prevent.
Mortal discard names the category of terminal patterns in coercive control — social, extraction, induced-suicidality, and homicide.
The story behind the Global Coercive Control Legislation Index, why I built it, and how you can help me continue this work.
A list of the countries that have criminalized femicide and the corresponding legislation.
Queensland passes groundbreaking coercive control legislation to tackle intimate partner violence and femicide in honor of Hannah Clarke.
The Vermont House of Representatives passes groundbreaking the H.27 Bill to combat coercive control and protect survivors.
Why coercive control must be criminalized worldwide — and what the law looks like where it exists. Updated 2026.