PARRICIDIO. — In common usage, this denotes the killing of one’s father, or also the killing of a child by his father. In criminal law, p. means the killing of a relative (as well as of a relative by marriage in the direct line), and a distinction is made between proper and improper p. (or quasi-p.), according as the person killed is or is not a relative in the direct line. The term does not occur in the Italian Penal Code.
The etymology of the word is highly uncertain, although it is commonly held to derive from patricidium, that is, the killing of a pater familias. The question has been examined especially by scholars of Roman law, with particular reference to a passage contained in a law of Numa Pompilius (“si quis hominem liberum dolo
sciens mortui duit, paricidas esto ¹). In the absence of more precise indications, the expression paricidas esto, which summarized the sanction of the provision just cited, has been subjected to various interpretations: thus, some have understood it to mean that the killer of a free man was to be equated with the killer of a pater familias (and the etymology of the word p. would thereby be explained in the simplest manner); for others, on the contrary, the formula in question meant that the killer of a free man was to be par occisum, that is, killed in the same manner, which naturally implies a quite different etymological solution. Nor have other singular explanations been lacking. It has been said that paricidas was the avenger, that is, one who killed a person in the same manner (par) in which that person had killed someone else. Finally, paricidium has been derived from per caedere. The figure of the quaestores paricidi has likewise done nothing to clarify the problem, given the many doubts surrounding their institution. In any event, as time went on, paricidium came in Roman law to signify the killing of a relative. In a broad sense, this remained the meaning of the term thereafter.
The differences between one age and another, and between one people and another, essentially concern the scope of the concept of relative and the penalty imposed on the paricida. In Roman law of the historical period, p. consisted in the killing of a descendant, an ancestor, a spouse, a brother, an uncle, a cousin, close relatives by marriage, or a patron. The typical penalty was that of the sack (culleus): the guilty person was placed in it together with an animal and then thrown into the sea. In the 1st century B.C., the lex Pompeia de paricidio substantially modified the regulation of p.: among other things, the death penalty was replaced by banishment. The culleus is nevertheless found in the 1st century of the Empire, initially only in cases involving the killing of an ancestor, and later for the killing of any close relative. Subsequently, it was replaced by expositio ad bestias and burning at the stake. As is also shown by the barbarian laws and those of later centuries, death thus became the normal sanction for p. Naturally, life imprisonment replaced death in those legal systems which, beginning in the 18th century, abolished capital punishment. At the same time, the tendency arose to restrict the scope of p. to the killing of an ancestor or a descendant.
The Zanardelli Code accordingly punished with life imprisonment the killing of a legitimate ancestor or descendant, as well as the killing of a natural parent or child, where natural filiation had been legally recognized or declared (art. 566). The killing of a spouse, brother, sister, adopter, adoptee, or relative by marriage in the direct line was likewise punished more severely than ordinary homicide: in such cases, imprisonment for 22 to 24 years was applicable (art. 365). With regard to this dual treatment, the terms proper and improper p. were used respectively. Since the Rocco Code reproduced, more or less in the same terms, the system adopted in this matter by the Zanardelli Code, the distinction between proper and improper p. continues to be made. The former exists in the situation provided for by art. 577 no. 1, namely, the killing of an ancestor or a descendant (penalty: life imprisonment); the latter exists in the situation provided for by the second paragraph of art. 577, namely, the killing of a spouse (by spouse is meant the person to whom one is united in a marriage having civil effect), a brother or sister (including full, consanguine, and uterine siblings), an adopter, an adoptee, or a relative by marriage in the direct line (penalty: imprisonment for 24 to 30 years). As can be seen, apart from the greater severity of the latter sanction, current legislation differs from the earlier legislation solely in having equated, in accordance with the criminal-law principle laid down in art. 540, illegitimate filiation with legitimate filiation: art. 577 no. 1 in fact provides for life imprisonment for the killing of an ancestor or descendant in general. The killing of a child or a father therefore falls within this provision, whether the filiation is legitimate, natural, adulterous, or incestuous.
Another important difference from the Zanardelli Code disappeared after the enactment of
D. L. L. 8 Aug. 1944 no. 244 abolished the death penalty: art. 576 in fact punished with death the killing of an ancestor or descendant when it occurred in specified circumstances; that is, for an abject or futile motive, through the use of torture, by employing poison or another insidious means, or with premeditation. Now life imprisonment is also applied in these cases.
What is most important to note is that the relationship of kinship is regarded by the Italian legislator as an aggravating circumstance of ordinary homicide, and not as a qualified form of homicide, as is instead the case with infanticide for reasons of honor, homicide of a consenting person, homicide for reasons of honor, or preterintentional homicide. Under art. 60, however, the aggravating circumstance is not to be applied when the homicide was committed in ignorance of the relationship of kinship with the victim: in such a case, there is in fact an error concerning the person.
As regards canon law, p. is regarded homicide (v.). Cf. the entry cited for the status of delictum mixti fori and for the penalties.
BINL.: Ph. Meylan, L'etimologie du mot parricide, Lausanne 1928; E. Altavilla, Delitti contro la persona, in Trattato di diritto penale coordinato da Florian, Milan 1934, p. 117; G. Pasquali, Paricidas esto, in Studi Besta, I, Milan 1938, p. 67 ff. (and now in Terze pagine stravaganti, Florence 1942, p. 135 ff.); I. Chelofi-P. Ciprotti, Ius canonicum de delictis et poenis, Vicenza-Trento 1943, p. 115; V. Manzini, Trattato di diritto penale italiano, VIII, 2nd ed., Turin 1947, p. 29.