The Family Journal, Ahead of Print.
Nothing is more devastating to a family than the death of their child. A sudden death due to a violent crime such as murder including school shootings can be life-shattering. According to socially prescribed and predictable scripts, children are supposed to outlive their parents. When a child dies before the parent, the blueprint for one’s life journey is backwards, leaving no prescribed plan to guide the family through life. When the death occurs as a result of murder, it is even more devastating. This article explores this backward script of a child dying before his or her parents because of murder and the resulting journey the family faces. It first examines the incidences of murdered children and then explores some possible barriers to the healing process. Next, the concept of scripts is explored, exploring different death scripts. The effect of a murdered child on the marital role, the parental role, and siblings is also presented. Psychological reactions are discussed and counseling considerations are presented. Counseling implications are considered throughout. This journey is demonstrated through the experiences of Cameron’s family, Cameron was a 16-year-old adolescent who was murdered. This case history is fictitious and was developed to illustrate points in the paper. It is in no way related to any individual or family.