The Menendez Brothers Case: A Study of Filicide and Abuse, Summaries of Criminology

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R. Rand,

Parricide: the Menendez brothers

which the children kill their parents have risen in recent years. This trend displays that crimes in

with the murders are committed by the victim’s children will only increase in the years to come.

After studying a specific data set related to the topic of violence and murder against parents, I have come to believe in the theory that neglected and abused children murder their parents because there options are extremely limited and they feel as if they have no other way

out other than to commit violence against their parents. Law & Order True Crime: The

Menendez Brother s is a TV series based on the true story of the Menendez brothers who were

convicted for murdering their parents. The TV series gives the audience a detailed account of the

Menendez brothers’ lives, the physical and mental abuse they suffered throughout childhood, and

the court case regarding their parents’ murder.

I chose this specific set of data because the TV series displays a very close portrayal of what kind of abuse the Menendez brothers had to go through and how it lead up to the murder of

their parents. The consequence of their parents constantly physically and sexually abusing and

neglecting them is that they turn against their own parents. The TV series does a very good job

of chronicling the Menendez brothers’ life, from the moment they kill their parents in the opening scene to the trial that lasted years to the last episode where they were seen leaving in

separate prison buses to their prisons. We are given insight into the childhood and adolescence of

the Menendez brothers and what the type of abuse they endure by their parents. I also chose this

particular data set because it gives two opposing sides to why the Menendez brothers killed their

parents. The defense tried to persuade the jury that the Menendez brothers killed their parents out

of self-defense and fear that their parents would kill them eventually. On the other hand, the

prosecution argued that the Menendez brothers murdered their parents in order to gain their wealth as the brothers bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cars, jewelry, and other

high-end items.

Theoretical Model of Cause and Effect To be able to understand how Lyle and Erik Menendez could have become the murderers of the parents who conceived them, the Theoretical Model of Cause and Effect is essential to

understand. The figure below displays the equation between X and Y.

Figure 1: What are the effects of [X] on [Y]? This theory suggests that an independent variable, which is also known as X, has the

ability to create a change in the dependent variable, which is also known as Y. X is believed to

be the factors in a certain event that causes the variable Y. The main focus of my paper is to

explain how Lyle and Erik Menendez came to be their parents’ murderers. This theoretical

model is excellent in its usefulness to find direct correlations between the X and Y variables, especially when it allows one to come to a conclusion as to why the criminal committed his or

her crime or what factors led the person to become a criminal. The Theoretical Model of Cause

and Effect will allow people to view the correlation between cause and effect; the Theory of

Label, the Theory of Neutralization, and the Theory of Differential Association.

Crime and Criminal Behavior [Y]

brothers intended to cold-bloodedly kill their parents as there was blood everywhere from the

gunshot wounds.

Crime and Criminal Behavior [X] In order to explain how my specific crime has causes, I will utilize the theory of labeling, neutralization, and differential association to give an insight into the Menendez brothers and the

events that lead up to the murder of their parents. The textbook, The Foundations of Criminal

Justice, defines the Theory of Labeling as stating “once society places a label on a person, that

individual will self-identify with the label and behave accordingly” (Owen). This theory suggests

that an individual who is labeled as a criminal has little to no choice but to conform to that label

of being a criminal. The theory also suggests that it is possible to stop or prevent social deviance

if there is a limit on how much labeling goes around and if it is replaced with tolerance instead.

Throughout their childhood, Jose Menendez has constantly abused his sons by hitting them or

calling them names like “loser” and “coward”. This type of labeling can stick throughout their

teenage years and enter adulthood, causing them to be more motivated to become criminals.

Throughout Lyle’s and Erik’s childhood's, they constantly fell short of their father’s expectations. Jose’s family described him as extremely controlling and demanding of his sons and even sometimes holding them to impossibly high standards. To add onto the problems of the family, Killy was suffering from alcoholism, depression, and drug addiction, so Lyle’s and Erik’s mother was not of any help. The Menendez brothers experienced many run-ins with law enforcement at early ages, but they never suffered any real consequences because of their father’s wealth. Lyle was found guilty of plagiarism in college at Princeton University and he was also arrested for stealing from his parent’s friends’ homes. Erik was also arrested for burglary at one point.

At a young age, Lyle and Erik Menendez had already been exposed to criminal behavior,

even though it was petty. In addition to their petty crimes, their family was not the ideal model in

the past as Jose, the father, was always pushing his sons to standards that were impossible to

reach and Kitty did not help because she was constantly dealing with her own demons. Because

Jose kept on demeaning his sons instead of building them up and giving them a good childhood like a normal parent would, the Menendez brothers could have possibly believe that they were

not good enough for themselves and their parents. This low-self esteem can cause the brothers to

be more exposed to criminal behavior and eventually, murderers.

The second theory that I will use as an explanation as to why the Menendez brothers

killed their parents is the Theory of Neutralization. The theory of neutralization was created as a

way to explain how criminals engage in law-breaking activities and at the same time, negate their

blame. This theory is meant to reject other theories by suggesting that groups that have criminals

have their own moral code in which they abide to. In the textbook, The Foundation of Criminal

Justice, the author, Stephen Owen, states that this theory “suggests that crime happens because offenders justify their criminal behavior through a series of neutralizations of excuses, including denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of the victim, condemnation of the condemners,

and appeal to higher loyalties.” Recently, researchers have found two more neutralization

techniques not identified before: appeal to good character and victimization. The Menendez

brothers had many ways of getting their parents to stop sexually abusing them like reporting

killed their parents for the “greater good”, with long term consequences that would justify their

actions, such as in this case, the protection of each other.

The final theory that explains how the Menendez brothers came to become their parents’

murderers is the Theory of Differential Association. This theory developed by Edwin

Sutherland proposed that by interacting with other people around them, individuals start to learn

the values, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. This theory displays how people learn

to become criminals, but does not really define why they become criminals. This theory

emphasizes the fact that learning criminal behavior happens in intimate groups and assumes that

anybody can turn into a criminal if they are placed in a situation that breeds criminal behavior.

There are three of nine principles of Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association that are

important to the Menendez Case: 1.) Criminal behavior is learned.; 6.) A person becomes

delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions

unfavorable to violation of the law.; 7.) Differential associations may vary in frequency,

duration, priority, and intensity. In the case of the Menendez brothers, they become criminals

because they learned that since their parents were committing criminal behavior by sexual

abusing them, that it was ok for the brothers to commit crime to like murder.

About two-thirds of matricides are committed by adult sons (rather than juveniles) and in many of the matricide cases I researched, the crimes were sexually motivated in some way. In some cases, the mother was apathetic about sexual abuse that the son had been the victim of, or had been the direct sexual abuser herself; in others, she had interfered in a romantic relationship, or the murderer had problems associated with sexual deviance. Murders of fathers—which are twice as common as matricides—were more often the result of a heated argument, a "snapping," or a passion-fueled scenario that led to murder

inadvertently. In cases where both parents were murdered, as with the Menendez murders, the motivations were not always as clear. Catalysts ranged from claims of abuse, jealousy, arbitrary quarrels, control, greed, and blatant narcissism. This explains that Kitty was very much as responsible as Jose for creating Lyle and Erik

into the murderers that they are. Even though the reasons as to why the Menendez brothers killed

their parents are extreme circumstantial, ranging from sexual abuse to greed, it is clear that Jose

and Kitty were the reasons why the brothers became criminals. Kitty was exposed as having sex

with the brothers even though it was worst with Jose. Kitty and Jose are the ones to blame for

forcing their sons to kill them as it was getting out of control and the situation was bound to

explode at any minute. The Menendez brothers learned their criminal behavior from their

parents. They weighed out the scale of following the law or breaking the law and they chose to

become criminals. For example, even though there are many people who live in gang-related

areas, they do not become gang members. It is because their parents have taught them that

following the law is better than breaking it. In the case of the Menendez brothers, their parents

never gave them a moral compass to follow, so they were forced to find their own moral code.

This lead to the brothers start out as petty criminals and end with becoming murderers.

Summary and Discussion Dick Wolf, the executive producer of Law and Order True Crime: The Menendez Brothers , gives the audience a different side as to the psychological motivations of children who

lost her first trial due to a hanged jury, he wanted to get another trial instead of letting it go. He

took a very big risk as if he lost the trial again, his chances of being elected would be slim to

none. The last element of the trial is perhaps the most interesting of them all. Dick Wolf shows

the audience the side that is rarely known, which is the jury debating about the Lyle and Erik

Menendez trial. The TV series shows how they debated and who was on what side and how they

reached their conclusion regarding the guilty or not guilty verdict of the Menendez brothers. All

of these elements that Dick Wolf shows the audience gives them a bigger picture of what went

on during trial and how all of these factors ended with the Menendez brothers in prison.

The VICE article, Why Men Kill Their Mothers by author Alexis Linkletter, gives readers a deeper insight into what kinds of motives drove the Menendez brothers to kill their parents,

especially their mother. Psychologists and researchers believe that the act of killing one’s mother

is fueled by many factors including hatred and sexual desire. The article states that Jose was shot

point-blank in the back of the head when he watching TV on his sofa, while Kitty was shot in the

leg first when she tried to run for the hallway. Afterwards, she slipped and fell into her own

blood and was trying to get away from the killers until she was shot again in the chest and then

ten times to her head. If that was not enough, the murderers bludgeoned and destroyed her head.

This evidence clearly shows that the Menendez brothers had something extremely sinister

against their mother as they basically “overkilled” her. Even though Lyle and Erik confessed to

their parents’ murder after being arrested, their trial was focused more on why they killed their

parents rather than if they actually killed them. Leslie Abramson, who represented the defense,

argued for the Menendez brothers that they were driven to kill their parents because of all the

years of cruel and horrible sexual abuse from both their father and sometimes their mother too.

On the other side of the spectrum, the prosecution argued that the sexual abuse never happened and that the brothers murdered their parents in order to get their hands on the huge amount of

wealth their father had accumulated over the years. Many of the Menendez brothers’ family and

friends believed that the physical and sexual abuse did occur, especially from Jose. However, the

defense attorneys had a problem because even though Kitty was thought of to be not that great of a mother, there was not enough evidence to suggest that she had committed any heinous acts

against her sons. Even more confusing as to why the Menendez brothers killed their mother in

such a horrific way is the fact that Lyle and Erik were very close to their mother.

Alexis Linkletter interviewed Dr. William Vicary, who was a forensic psychiatrist who

treated the Menendez brothers after they were arrested for their parents’ murder. He told

Linkletter that during his first few sessions with Erik, the younger of the two brothers, that “all he wanted to do was tell [him] how wonderful his parents were - how terrific, brilliant, and

successful his father was, and how loving and kind and warm his mother was.” Linkletter also

interview a police officer who worked on the case and he told Linkletter than the police found phone records that showed many conversations between Lyle and his mother, Kitty, that would

last three to four hours long. Linkletter stated two theories as to why sons murder their mothers.

The first is a theory from Sigmund Freud who believed that a son who kills his mother “ is

defending against incestuous impulses.” On the other hand, a son who kills his father could have

want to murder them. This VICE article about matricide is supported by statistics by the

Department of Justice. In 2011, Alexia Cooper and Erica L. Smith reported a change in the trend of family murder. Homicide by a partner or ex-partner has gone down from 52% in 1980 to 25% in 2008. However, the researchers found out that the fastest growing homicide is where parents are killed by their children. This type of homicide, parricide, has been going up from 10% in 1980 to 13% in 2008. Even though it is only a 3% increase, the fact still remains that there is an increase. Two brothers whose lives are forever changed through sexual abuse and turns them into

murderers when they gun down their parents is the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. Dick Wolf

picked the perfect actors to portray how real the emotions the Menendez brothers were feeling.

These theories: the Theory of Labeling, Theory of Neutralization, and Theory of Differential Association were extremely useful in displaying and analyzing the reasons why the Menendez

brothers kill their parents. These theories provide many lessons on how to prevent adults from

killing their parents. In order to prevent this type of crime from happening, it is important for

people to identify sexual abuse early on and try to stop it, either by confronting the parent or parents who are committing the heinous act of sexual abuse or even by reporting them to law

enforcement. By stopping the sexual abuse, these children will not grow up to hate and resent

their parents and end up killing them. To improve the research around patricide, I recommend

studying the external factors that would lead an adult to murder their parents. The Menendez

brothers are a prime example of how petty thieves could end up cold-bloodedly murdering their

parents for either greed or protection against sexual abuse.