Although few parents and stepparents were killed by adolescents, five factors emerged as indicating high risk of becoming parricide offenders. These factors are a chemically dependent or other dysfunctional family, an ongoing pattern of family violence, an escalation of the violence, an increasing vulnerability of the youth to the family stressors, and ready availability of firearms in the home. All seven cases analyzed in detail involved the use of firearms. These situations would probably not have been lethal if the youths had been restricted to knives, blunt objects, bare hands, or other weapons. Analyses of other research studies, data tables, and 46 references.