Monday, December 7, 2009

Triple infanticide in Savoy: Who are those mothers who kill their child?

The news is there to remind us that if the love of a mother for her child is the rule in humans, sometimes a parent removes the child she gave birth. Psychiatry attempts to sketch the profile of these mothers infanticide: they are ill or victims of circumstance? The point from the studies available.

After the "business" Veronique Courjault and Aline Lelièvre, a new case of infanticide is one of the newspapers since August 23. The discovery of the bodies of three babies in plastic boxes in the parental home in Savoy reopens the debate about mothers infancticides. A recent analysis of 39 studies conducted in several countries (including 13 studies in the United States) allows us to sketch a portrait of these mothers, according to the age of the child's death. The researchers distinguished thus neonaticidal (the child is killed on his birthday), infanticide (death before the first birthday) and filicide (death after first birthday). Indeed, there are differences among mothers, depending on when they give their child died.

A little known fact
The figure of infanticide in France are not known. According to U.S. statistics, homicide is the fourth leading cause of death of a child under 4 years and the third in 5-14 years. But the U.S. has the highest rate of homicide among children: 8 cases per 100 000 children under one year, 2.5 per 100 000 children 1 to 4 years, 1.5 per 100 000 children 5 to 14 years. In Canada, however, rates are twice lower. Also according to U.S. sources, 61% of children under 5 years old were killed by their parents: 30% from their mothers, 31% by their father. (2)


Facts

Neonaticide
According to administrative data in several American countries, mothers who kill their newborns are more often single women, they average 17 to 19 years, a socio-economic status and low living with their parents or close relatives. Many have concealed their pregnancy, few have had access to counsel or a prenatal support. Studies conducted in other countries paint a similar picture. A Japanese study revealed that these murderous mothers have an average 22 years, they did not suffer from mental disorders, they are unmarried, illiterate and it was their first child. One of the reasons cited to explain their actions is poverty.

Infanticide
Several studies show that mothers who kill their child in the first year of life are aged 20 on average. Many are unemployed and much suffering from psychiatric disorders. According to a Japanese study, there was a high incidence of malformations among children victims. An American study involves infanticide to economic stress (lack of money).

Filicide
Two U.S. studies have documented the profile-type maternal filicide: they are often from disadvantaged backgrounds, are socially isolated and have been themselves victims of domestic abuse. Some used drugs. Among the criminal mothers, those who planned the death of their children suffered more often from mental disorders in a failed relationship and "devotion" to their child. Most of these mothers are unmarried, unemployed, abused alcohol and were victims of domestic violence.
Studies conducted in other countries that the United States suggest that these mothers suffer from mental illness (psychosis, depression, suicidal). In some cases they were abused when they were small or had to suffer violence in their homes. Most lack the financial resources.

Analysis

According to available studies, mothers who kill their children belong to a disadvantaged background, they often have no control over their lives and the events and their life is frustrating. It is most often young women, poor and uneducated.
However, in each country, tens or even hundreds of thousands of women fit this picture without killing their child. And current evidence does not indicate which of these young mothers, poor and uneducated could remove a child. Nevertheless some features are emerging as having a hidden pregnancy. This behavior may indicate a risk of infanticide, but it is inherently difficult to identify for prevention. Similarly, mothers who expressed no interest in prenatal care may also constitute a population at risk.
If you can paint in broad strokes a portrait of the mother who kills her child before her first birthday, it's much more complicated for filicide mothers who kill older children. Dominate disturbed profiles, and psychotic depression.

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