Rachel Condry’s Research on Matricide Featured in The Guardian
Rachel Condry, Professor of Criminology, has been featured in The Guardian for her research into the hidden issue of matricide in the United Kingdom. Her research, in collaboration with Dr Caroline Miles from the University of Manchester, sheds light on a deeply troubling and underexamined problem: the killing of mothers by their children - and overwhelmingly sons.
A report from the Femicide Census on 2000 femicides since 2009 shows that more than 170 mothers have been killed by their sons in the UK since 2009, which equates to nearly one mother killed every month. Professor Condry and Dr Miles are collaborating with the team at the Femicide Census to explore the characteristics of these cases.
On 5 March 2025, The Guardian published a front-page article highlighting the issue of matricide, bringing this hugely hidden problem into public view for the first time. The article featured previously unavailable data from the Femicide Census report and has sparked calls for the government to take specific action and develop prevention policies.
Professor Condry emphasised the importance of recognising this issue, stating, ‘There’s a real injustice that women, older and middle-aged women, who are in this situation are marginalised to the degree that nobody is asking questions and nobody is really telling their stories when they’re killed.’ Many of these tragic cases occur within caregiving relationships, where older mothers with health difficulties are supporting and living together with adult sons with mental health problems or substance abuse.
The research draws attention to significant gaps in support services for parents dealing with violent or abusive adult children. The lack of a support system often leaves parents feeling isolated. By bringing this taboo issue into public focus, Professors Condry and Dr Miles hope to prompt academic discourse and policy reform around better safeguarding measures and improved support systems for vulnerable families.
Professor Condry and Dr Miles have been researching filial violence (violence towards parents) for over 15 years and have focused specifically on matricide for four years. In 2022, they published an article dedicated to this topic, marking a crucial step in raising awareness of the issue. Reflecting on the significance of this research, Professor Condry stated,
“Our previous research analysing 57 parricide cases found that they most often took place within a context of ‘parental proximity’, characterised by caregiving relationships and closely entwined lives, and matricides were particularly characterised by mothers often caring for a severely mentally ill son. Risks to mothers were not identified, and mothers were invisible and completely ignored. Our current research examining over 170 cases shows that this story is repeated again and again. Yet there is no specific attention to this problem in policy, or strategies to prevent matricide and support mothers who are experiencing violence from adult sons.”
Read the full article on matricides
Read the full article on parricides