Children co-victims of intimate partner homicide: the first 72 decisive hours

In intimate partner homicides, children are confronted with multiple losses and become simultaneously a victim and the child of a murderer. These homicides have a very negative effects of these tragedies on these children There is a need to provide them early care, and this requires straightforward guidelines. The objective is to assess the feasibility of implementing such a feminicide protocol and to discuss, point-by-point, the difficulties of their application. It includes a series of 17 steps, from the commission of the offense to the end of 72 h hospitalization. Data regarding the completion of steps was to be collected for each of these situations. During the study period there were 4 intimate partner homicides; these involved 14 children. Overall, the protocol criteria were applied at a rate of 88.6%, 9/17 criteria where applied for each child. However, certain provisions, including a shorter duration of hospitalization, the absence of personal belongings, the lack of hearing the child witnesses and, above all, the restriction of visiting rights during hospitalization, are worth noting. Operational deviations of the protocol from the theoretical version are discussed. The present study reported encouraging results concerning the feasibility of the "femicide protocol" with the co-victim children, but the discrepancies between the protocol and the implementations reported in that study require to reflect about optimizations of the protocol and their potential influence on children's wellbeing. The recent extension of the protocol in the French national territory will provide the professionals concerned with opportunities to solve the remaining challenges.