Continuer d'être après l'assassinat de son enfant : Trajectoires biographiques et expérience du collectif par le récit de vie

Details

Supervisors

Janssen, Christophe ; Renard, Bertrand

Faculty

Faculté de droit et de criminologie

Degree label

Master [120] en criminologie, à finalité spécialisée: criminologie de l'intervention

Abstract

enWhen a parent loses a child, something in their life trajectory is shattered. This impact becomes embedded within a particularly dense temporal and spatial experience. In this singular reality, some parents turn toward a collective bringing together individuals who have undergone a similar experience. The aim of this thesis is to understand how and why belonging to a collective emerges within the biographical trajectory of parents who have lost a child through homicide. What does the collective respond to? Through life narratives, we sought to approach as closely as possible what takes place both internally and externally around this traumatic moment when it is supported by a collective of bereaved parents. Our analysis reveals that the collective is not a resource mobilized by chance: it appears as a support that had already fulfilled a sustaining function at other moments in life. Furthermore, the collective seems to materialize the bifurcation in these parents’ trajectories while preserving the psychic possibility of a “transitional” trajectory, the one in which their child is still alive. The collective may embody a dimension of "solicitude". Finally, this work invites reflection on the ways in which we, as a society, as professionals, and as institutions, can support these bereaved victimized parents.