Why would two young boys abduct, torture and kill a toddler? What makes a teenage girl plot with her classmates to kill her own father? Traditionally, society is used to regarding children as harmless -- but for some the age of innocence is short-lived, messy and ultimately murderous.Children Who Kill is a comprehensive new study of juvenile homicide. Carol Anne Davis sets out to explore this disturbing subject using in-depth case studies of thirteen killers aged between ten and seventeen. Exclusive interviews with experts offer an invaluable insight into the psychology behind these atrocities and a hard-hitting look at the role of society in an area too shocking to ignore
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"Children Who Kill," by Carol Ann Davis, is a comprehensive new study of juvenile homicide. The author sets out to explore this subject using in-depth case studies of 13 children aged between 10 and 17. Exclusive interviews with experts offer insight behind their actions, and a look at the role of society in an area too shocking to ignore." -- Grand Forks, ND The Herald
From the Author
There are seventeen profiles in this book encompassed in thirteen chapters as some of the children killed in pairs. There are additional chapters on Children Who Kill Their Families, Children Who Kill Their Friends, Youthful Sex Killers, etc, which include numerous case studies of juvenile homicide.
Children learn by example - so the sexually abused boys who feature in this book sometimes went on to sexually abuse even younger boys. Similarly, a boy who was whipped went on to flagellate his victims and a girl who was semi-strangled copied this and strangled both her victims to death.
Some first class interviewees contribute to Children Who Kill. Claire Rayner spoke to me about the dangers of offering violence to children whilst Don Hale told of his struggle to get a wrongly-convicted child set free. And Detective Chief Superintendent Sagar explained the multiply-abused background of Britain's youngest serial killer, a boy who claimed twenty six lives. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Jesse was born to Ruth and Thomas Pomeroy on 29th November 1859. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Jesse was born to Ruth and Thomas Pomeroy on 29th November 1859. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Video nasties, porn and heavy metal music don't make happy children turn to murder. Children Who Kill shows exactly what these youngsters survived before they fought back. Carol Ann Davis tells us everything from their parents ages and occupations to their school experiences. She interviewed a detective about one British serial killing case to provide pages of information I haven't been able to find anywhere else.
Did the reader who gave this book a one star review read the same book as me? The quotes simply showed that the author hadn't made her information up, that other criminologists share her awareness of what shapes these youthful killers. The TV show she refers to is an episode of Kilroy where a sexually abused girl spoke of wearing a wire to trap her abuser. And the women's magazine reference was to a parenting column.
My only criticism of the book is that after a while you know how the case is likely to end: that is, the children who were tortured went on to torture, those who were raped went on to rape and those who were beaten went on to beat. But I guess that isn't the author's problem. She is simply telling the harrowing truth.
Conventional readers may not like this book as it shines a spotlight on many of society's sacred cows and finds them wanting. It's also scathing about the way many adults treat their young.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Many true crime books seem like a thinly disguised excuse to trot out sensational details of gruesome murders. There will always be the sort of audience who used to gather around the public gallows but some readers may wish to move on from the sensationalist approach and read this cool, lucid account. Carol Anne Davis spares us no detail of a number of recent cases but has also tried to find solutions to the tragedy of children who kill. You would never realise from reading tabloid reports on these cases that these children have usually been abused by parents or carers. They have not been posessed by the devil or born evil: they have been made that way. Often subject to harsh discipline or a fanatical religious upbringing these children are hardly likely to benefit from the twenty year sentences that are often demanded. Often they are suffering from too much discipline rather than too little.While this book may be a lone voice amid the tabloid chorus for harsher and hasher retribution it is certainbly worth listening to. The information is presented in short easily digestible chunks without sacrificing any depth. Highly recommended.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This book opens with the author telling of her childhood friendship with a boy who stabbed a girl, and that got me hooked. You wouldn't believe how young some of these killers are. There are ten year old sexual assaulters and eleven year old stranglers and twelve year old torturers. By their early teens some of them have moved on to rape. The older teens often killed more people, eg battering their parents to death then wiping out kids at their school. Although disturbing, I found this a very readable book which made me think differently about why children kill.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Mark Ramsden
Format:Paperback
I'm afraid it's necessary to correct the misleading impression left by the last reviewer. This is a well-researched book with an important message which never wallows in the worst humans can do - unlike some scissors and paste true crime books, generally written by journalists with one eye on the clock. It may not be particularly writerly but as Martin Amis has too often demonstrated, literary flourishes are the last thing one wants in a discussion of harrowing atrocities. Cool, clear brevity is exactly what's required here.
If one lives in the present rather than the past it may also seem natural to use American English on occasion. Many of the best crime writers are Americans, the best crime television is certainly American so I doubt whether anyone with a cosmopolitan outlook will be offended by the occasional phrase from our former colonies.
The sober sub-headings are not remotely reminiscent of the prurient howls of tabloid excess. As for the song titles, I would rather go on a walking holiday with Kelvin McKenzie, Richard Littlejohn and Garry Bushell than listen to punk or indie music but I found the titles' inclusion intriguing rather than irritating, a welcome innovation. Having mentioned those three boorish buffoons - exactly the sort of rabble rousers who believe in 'demon children', the family as cure for all known ills, sexual repression and corporal and capital punishment - it's a pity some liberal dictator can't force them to read this book.
I suppose some stuffed shirt would demand I declare an interest as I'm quoted briefly towards the end of the book. Don't let that put you off, Carol Anne Davis studied criminology before becoming one of the few writers who looks into the deepest darkness.... Read more ›
If one lives in the present rather than the past it may also seem natural to use American English on occasion. Many of the best crime writers are Americans, the best crime television is certainly American so I doubt whether anyone with a cosmopolitan outlook will be offended by the occasional phrase from our former colonies.
The sober sub-headings are not remotely reminiscent of the prurient howls of tabloid excess. As for the song titles, I would rather go on a walking holiday with Kelvin McKenzie, Richard Littlejohn and Garry Bushell than listen to punk or indie music but I found the titles' inclusion intriguing rather than irritating, a welcome innovation. Having mentioned those three boorish buffoons - exactly the sort of rabble rousers who believe in 'demon children', the family as cure for all known ills, sexual repression and corporal and capital punishment - it's a pity some liberal dictator can't force them to read this book.
I suppose some stuffed shirt would demand I declare an interest as I'm quoted briefly towards the end of the book. Don't let that put you off, Carol Anne Davis studied criminology before becoming one of the few writers who looks into the deepest darkness.... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book opens with the author telling of her childhood friendship with a boy who stabbed a girl. He was twelve but some of these killers are even younger than that. There are ten year old sexual assaulters and eleven year old stranglers and twelve year old torturers. By their early teens some of them have moved on to rape. The older teens often killed more people, Eg battering their parents to death then wiping out kids at their school. Although the cruelty was unsettling, I found these profiles made me think differently about why children kill.
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2.9 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very absorbing
Disturbing but insightful, not that much information about Thompson and Venables, otherwise good explains rather than excuses violent actions worth a read
Published 24 days ago by jaa
5.0 out of 5 stars
CHILDREN WHO KILL;WHO IS REALLY TO BLAME?
Davies is very sympathetic to the victims in this book. She also shows sympathy for the children who commit these acts of murder. Read more
Published 13 months ago by sky
4.0 out of 5 stars
what about the victims.....
It was a harsh reality of children who murder innocent others and carol makes out that the murders are the victims... That they had a bad upbrining... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mrs J C Tridgell
4.0 out of 5 stars
interesting read
After reading this book my attitude towards child killers changed. The book doesn't go into graphic detail of their crimes but just gives an overview. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2011 by happybuyer
5.0 out of 5 stars
I wish everyone could read this
A fascinating background into a variety of high profile cases where children have resorted to murder; from 12 year old Jesse Pomeroy in America in the late nineteenth century to... Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2010 by Helen Simpson
5.0 out of 5 stars
EXCELLENT
This book deals with the cases more briefly than others I have read, but makes excellent reading if the subject interests you. Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2010 by Jenni
1.0 out of 5 stars
to simple
This could have been a really good book. It is well written and well researched Carol Ann Davis seems to have left no stone unturned in her quest to discover why children do... Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2009 by gothmother
1.0 out of 5 stars
Comes from Scotland but writes poor American English
Why should someone from the UK use expressions such as 'leastways', 'gotten', or 'off of'?
The repetetive style of her writing also meant that you were treated like an... Read more
The repetetive style of her writing also meant that you were treated like an... Read more
Published on 13 July 2007 by A reader
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