Maternal filicide: mothers who kill their babies
Maternal filicide: mothers who kill their babies
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Issue Date
2010
Authors
Davis, Shawniqua
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Abstract
The act of a mother killing one’s son or daughter is known as maternal filicide. Are emotional instability, immaturity, a lack of knowledge, and/or a lack of resources core variables contributing to the pre-eminent motives for maternal filicide? Psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and criminality play viable roles in assessing such behavior. Various perspectives can be seen under each of the following subject disciplines showing the commonality and different pre-tenses leading to neonaticide and infanticide. It has been stated that women are emotionally driven in life, yet in the United States, the public is unable to understand potentially harmful results from hormonal shifts, such as after childbirth. Spiraling feelings of depression, too ashamed to talk about it, and too confused to interpret that help is needed are examples of emotional symptoms that have led to maternal filicide. With these symptoms, which are often results from the hormonal shifts of having a child, it should be obvious that more extensive measures need to be taken to care for new mothers' mental health and to ensure they are properly monitored if there are warning signs. If detection and prevention of maternal filicide incidences are possible through the use of a tool like the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, then socio-communal assistance for new mothers and precautions should be taken in the hospital and at home to avert harm to future children.
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Forensic science