When A Child Kills Author:Paul Mones Abused children who kill their parents. To the outside world Cindy had everything: intelligence, beauty, and a wealthy father who lavished her with presents. But her role as favorite daughter went further than anyone knew, for her dad had slowly turned her into a prisoner of incest. Unable to see an end to his brutality, she tried to escape: ... more »first by running away, then by trying to kill herself. Finally, one night she stopped him with a blast from a shotgun. Mones does not merely give an account of how these tragedies occurred. He takes a very hard look at our often monolithic juvenile justice system; at the "safety net" supposedly designed to protect children; at the blind eye relatives, teachers, and friends often turn when abuse is evident. The author points out that we, as adults, always overestimate a child's capacity to act---to run away, to report a parent, to break our societal taboo against exposing family secrets. By understanding patricide and its causes, Mones believes, we can gain a much deeper knowledge of our nation's most pervasive social problems: the abuse of its children.« less