Parents Who Kill Their Children
Parents Who Kill Their Children
Filicide - is defined as the homicide of a child by his or her parent
Causation factors -
1)fatal maltreatment (accidental filicide) - most of these deaths are caused by severe head trauma
2)birth of unwanted child
3)altruistic motives - such as child would not be a good addition to the family, doing what is genuinely best for the child
4)acutely psychotic parent - when a parent is in the throes of psychosis or mania, kills the child for no rational reason
5)spouse revenge - (Medea's syndrome) "occurs with the least frequency," when parent kills the favored child of the other parent
Neonaticide - refers to infant homicide by a parent on the first day after birth. (concealed or denied pregnancies)
Types of Denial -
1) pervasive denial - surprised at the infant's birth have no physical or emotional awareness of the pregnancy
2) affective denial - cognitively aware that they must be pregnant, yet make no preparations and do not emotionally acknowledge the pregnancy
3) psychotic denial - may acknowledge and deny their pregnancies intermittently or may attribute their weight gain and physical changes to another (possibly bizarre) cause
Jane Doe anonymity laws - If a young teen is pregnant and decides to not tell her parents for out of fear of what her parents might do to her she may have an abortion without parental consent
Infanticide - is defined as child homicide by parents within the first postnatal year
Infanticide Act of 1922 and 1938 - This act reduced punishment for infanticide from that of murder to that of manslaughter if the perpetrator was a mother who was suffering from a mental instability.
Postpartum Depression - occurs in approximately 10 to 25% of mothers within the first year of giving birth.
- may experience depressed mood lack of enjoying activities difficulty bonding with the baby difficulty sleeping weight and appetite changes decreased energy
Filicide - is defined as the homicide of a child by his or her parent
Causation factors -
1)fatal maltreatment (accidental filicide) - most of these deaths are caused by severe head trauma
2)birth of unwanted child
3)altruistic motives - such as child would not be a good addition to the family, doing what is genuinely best for the child
4)acutely psychotic parent - when a parent is in the throes of psychosis or mania, kills the child for no rational reason
5)spouse revenge - (Medea's syndrome) "occurs with the least frequency," when parent kills the favored child of the other parent
Neonaticide - refers to infant homicide by a parent on the first day after birth. (concealed or denied pregnancies)
Types of Denial -
1) pervasive denial - surprised at the infant's birth have no physical or emotional awareness of the pregnancy
2) affective denial - cognitively aware that they must be pregnant, yet make no preparations and do not emotionally acknowledge the pregnancy
3) psychotic denial - may acknowledge and deny their pregnancies intermittently or may attribute their weight gain and physical changes to another (possibly bizarre) cause
Jane Doe anonymity laws - If a young teen is pregnant and decides to not tell her parents for out of fear of what her parents might do to her she may have an abortion without parental consent
Infanticide - is defined as child homicide by parents within the first postnatal year
Infanticide Act of 1922 and 1938 - This act reduced punishment for infanticide from that of murder to that of manslaughter if the perpetrator was a mother who was suffering from a mental instability.
Postpartum Depression - occurs in approximately 10 to 25% of mothers within the first year of giving birth.
- may experience depressed mood lack of enjoying activities difficulty bonding with the baby difficulty sleeping weight and appetite changes decreased energy