Endangered Children: Neonaticide, Infanticide, and Filicide PDF

Preface

Are Children Expendable?

Drought is one of Mother Nature's means of population control. Tens of thousands can die from one outbreak of plague or one flood. Countries and cultures often control population growth by war, with thousands killed or starved to death on each side. Those societies whose economies cannot support a growing population enact population-limiting laws or simply practice wholesale neonaticide when families grow too large or the newborn is the "wrong" gender (i.e., female), for all cultures' moral codes are constituted within the exigencies of survival. A case can be made that while infanticide is abhorred, it is routine in societies lacking the resources to feed all their children (Posner, 1998). Scheper-Hughes (1989) noted that in the "impoverished Third World today — women have had to give birth and to nurture children under ecological conditions and social arrangements hostile to child survival, as well as to their own well-being" (p. 14). Under these adverse conditions, women either purposely neglect or allow weak and infirm infants to die as part of their policies to ensure the well-being and survival of the rest of their families.

Although we are more aware today, as the 20th century ends, of instances of child-killing, this crime is not a modern phenomenon. Despite universal reprobation, neonaticide and infanticide have been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunters and gatherers to those in "higher" civilizations, including our own ancestors and contemporaries. "Rather than being the exception, it has been the rule" (Williamson, 1978, p. 61). People are horrified when parents kill their children, and the media focus a great deal of attention on such crimes. It is likely that we are more aware of such occurrences today simply because modern communications carry these news items farther and faster than in the past. This may also provoke "copycat" cases as less mentally stable or less capable parents see killing their children as a solution to their problems, whatever those may be.

Today, most societies deplore child homicide, and many debate the right to abortion. Population problems, though, exist now as they have in the past.

In a sense, those individuals who commit neonaticide, infanticide, or filicide are also practicing population control, but after the fact of birth instead of before conception. These individuals and their acts against their children are our subjects of study. Child-killing within the family can be divided into three categories by the age of the victim: neonaticide, infanticide, or filicide. The murderer in these cases is usually one of the child's parents; occasionally it is someone acting in loco parentis.

To begin with, we must provide a context for the crime by looking at the roles of neonaticide, infanticide, and filicide in history. To do this, we will discuss these crimes as they occurred in biblical and ancient times and up to our modern era. Apart from historical research, we know that these crimes were also the core of much literature, from Medea (Euripides, 431 B.C./1938) to the contemporary novel, e.g., The Angel of Darkness (Carr, 1991), and were certainly evident in many folk and fairy tales still read to children. These crimes also often have a cultural endorsement that we in the U.S., and in most Westernized cultures, do not quite comprehend.

We will focus on neonaticide which is not a culturally supported matter, but rather an individual one, and we will also keep this crime distinct from infanticide and filicide as they occur under different circumstances. An abundance of questions arise from each of these crimes. These questions lead inevitably to discussion of the politics and semiotics involved in contraception, abortion, and sex education.

Depending upon the circumstances of the individual case and, to a lesser extent, the community in which the neonaticide occurs, how much media attention is given to the specific case? What is the effect of media focus on the crime and its perpetrator(s)? Does media publicity affect the penalty to be paid by the murdering parent(s)?

In some cases, the mother of an abandoned neonate may not be found, as often happens in large cities. How does she live with herself afterward, even if she is not punished by the courts? If she is found, should she be regarded as legally insane at the time of the crime or as guilty of manslaughter or first or second degree murder? To what extent should her age and/or circumstances be considered in weighing both the charge and, assuming she confesses or is found guilty, the penalty? Is imprisonment the appropriate penalty? These questions lead to examining the crime from the perspective of therapeutic jurisprudence. If the baby's father was involved in the neonaticide, does that change the legal perspective? If he was not involved, should he be permitted to escape any penalty for his role in the pregnancy which led to the crime? The law varies from community to community, as well as state to state and nation to nation, and has changed over the centuries. Awareness of these variations is necessary to the construction of any new policies.

Many of these same questions arise in cases of infanticide and filicide, with other issues added to the list. In an era when births are shown in almost complete detail in soap operas or "family" television shows, there seems to be little excuse for anyone to be uninformed about infantile crying and bodily functions. What psychological factors operate to repress such knowledge in the minds of those who kill infants for crying too long or too often? When social welfare agencies exist in virtually every community in the U.S., why are some parents so overwhelmed by child care that they murder a child rather than seek outside help? In cases where the parents separate, why does one parent kill the child(ren) rather than provide child support or permit the other to have visitation or shared custody? Why are children the victims of their parent's inabilities to cope with life?

The issues of sex education, contraception, abortion, and even euthanasia are related to some of the proposals to cope with these dilemmas, but they are fraught with sharp political nuances and insuperable divisions of opinion and passion. The chapters to follow will try to treat these questions with objectivity. They will also not only provide sociobiological, historical, and literary perspectives on neonaticide, infanticide, and filicide, but seek to answer the many psychological questions that arise from these crimes. In short, we will examine the mothers' backgrounds and motives; the role, if any, of mental illness; the response of the legal system in terms of charges and penalties; and future directions of preventive measures.