Why Some Mothers Kill Their Children
Homicide is the leading cause of death in children under four. Not crib death as many believe and not by a maniacal stranger but by a parent. Deliberate killing of ones own infant has never been observed in wild primates. There is a direct correlation between the act and the human society. Women, for the most part, do not make the best criminals. FBI crime statistics show that women commit only two crimes as frequently as men. Shoplifting and the murder of their own children. Although women commit less than 13% of all violent crimes they are also responsible for about 50% of all parental murders.
Many of these instances are contributed to postpartum depression or Baby blues - triggered by the births themselves says Nancy Scheper- Hughes, a medical anthropologist specializig in motherhood, violence and mental illness. There are three types of Postpartum depression that mothers may experience after childbirth. The least threatening is baby blues, consisting of mild mood swings and bouts of tearfulness. This can usually be taken care of without medication or treatment, often by just attending a support group.
The next is Postpartum depression, occurring anywhere from a few days to a few months after having any child in the family. Felling very strong feelings of sadness, despair and tragedy that affect a woman's ability to function. It can get worse if untreated. It can be treated with therapy and sometimes may need medication.
Postpartum psychosis is the most serious. It is a mental disorder that sets on quickly within the first three months of child birth. The mother will loose touch with reality and have hallucinations an delusions. It almost always requires medication and an extended hospitalization. The most highly publicized of these cases is the Texas mom Adrea Yates who drowned her 5 children in the bath tub. The birth of each of her children was followed by an hospitalization for deep depression.
A high percentage of these cases are also blamed on impulses as discussed in an article by Mike Rusyigan, a criminologist and Proffessor at San Fransisco University. Impulses like rage and frustration will often end in shaken baby syndrome or suffocation from covering a crying child's mouth. About 30% are premeditated murder, named Medea killings after an ancient Greek myth, a mother kills to punish someone like a cheating or abusive husband.
Yet another type is the narcissistic idea that the child is stymieing the mothers freedom, happiness or chance at a better life.
The most famous such case is that if Susan Smith, the South Carolina mom who drowned her two boys by strapping them in a sinking car.
The reasons women kill their children are complex but more often than not there are signs of trouble before the act. Frequent bouts with depression are the most telling and most often used in court as a defense. England has instated an Infanticide Act which codifies a ready made postpartum defense. Severe poverty also lends itself to infanticide. Women often kill their children in poor societies.
Historically, the families survival is pivotal to the sacrifice of weaker children or female children. Infanticide has always soared in counties riddled with famine or during political unrest. African women on board slave ships killed their children. The amount of these cases will continue to grow each year until societal norms maintain that this is not rare behavior. Mother love is not universal. All women are not natural loving mothers. Nor does motherhood trump all illnesses and psychosis.
More than half of the 45 women on death row are there for killing their husbands and/or children and almost all reported that no one believed them when they cried out for help saying "I cannot be trusted with my children." The public must take an active role in recognizing actual child abuse and how to intervene supportively before anything Else can be done.
Published by Kelly Banaski Sons
Kelly is a freelance journalist and nonfiction writer of 12 years. Her work has appeared in the Sacramento Bee, The Manchester Times, Divorce360, PREP Magazine and dozens more. She is the owner of the contro... View profile
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49 Comments
Post a Commentover the past few decades we have heard more stories about woman killing children and being convicted. In the early 1900 woman did it and then got away with it.I am more troubled by reccent events that courts are giving custody to fathers. I know of eight people recently where the men got the custody and woman get visitatton inall 8 cases the men sell the house stick the kid in some girlfriends home and keep the mom from contact --my friend never saw her mom again when it happened to her. The children end up with a father who is off doing his own side dating thing and the children suffer so for years. I hope someone will see the men are munipulating the system to get out of child support. Inn one case the husband druged the mother for years then committed her then / abondoned her --and courts gave her no rights cuz she was in a hospital-- men are really abusive at times-- and courts need to help these women and investigate what is happening after the divorces--in this case he got
over the past few decades we have heard more stories about woman killing children and being convicted. In the early 1900 woman did it and then got away with it.I am more troubled by reccent events that courts are giving custody to fathers. I know of eight people recently where the men got the custody and woman get visitatton inall 8 cases the men sell the house stick the kid in some girlfriends home and keep the mom from contact --my friend never saw her mom again when it happened to her. The children end up with a father who is off doing his own side dating thing and the children suffer so for years. I hope someone will see the men are munipulating the system to get out of child support. Inn one case the husband druged the mother for years then committed her then / abondoned her --and courts gave her no rights cuz she was in a hospital-- men are really abusive at times-- and courts need to help these women and investigate what is happening after the divorces--in this case he got
over the past few decades we have heard more stories about woman killing children and being convicted. In the early 1900 woman did it and then got away with it.I am more troubled by reccent events that courts are giving custody to fathers. I know of eight people recently where the men got the custody and woman get visitatton inall 8 cases the men sell the house stick the kid in some girlfriends home and keep the mom from contact --my friend never saw her mom again when it happened to her. The children end up with a father who is off doing his own side dating thing and the children suffer so for years. I hope someone will see the men are munipulating the system to get out of child support. Inn one case the husband druged the mother for years then committed her then / abondoned her --and courts gave her no rights cuz she was in a hospital-- men are really abusive at times-- and courts need to help these women and investigate what is happening after the divorces--in this case he got
over the past few decades we have heard more stories about woman killing children and being convicted. In the early 1900 woman did it and then got away with it.I am more troubled by reccent events that courts are giving custody to fathers. I know of eight people recently where the men got the custody and woman get visitatton inall 8 cases the men sell the house stick the kid in some girlfriends home and keep the mom from contact --my friend never saw her mom again when it happened to her. The children end up with a father who is off doing his own side dating thing and the children suffer so for years. I hope someone will see the men are munipulating the system to get out of child support. Inn one case the husband druged the mother for years then committed her then / abondoned her --and courts gave her no rights cuz she was in a hospital-- men are really abusive at times-- and courts need to help these women and investigate what is happening after the divorces--in this case he got
over the past few decades we have heard more stories about woman killing children and being convicted. In the early 1900 woman did it and then got away with it.I am more troubled by reccent events that courts are giving custody to fathers. I know of eight people recently where the men got the custody and woman get visitatton inall 8 cases the men sell the house stick the kid in some girlfriends home and keep the mom from contact --my friend never saw her mom again when it happened to her. The children end up with a father who is off doing his own side dating thing and the children suffer so for years. I hope someone will see the men are munipulating the system to get out of child support. Inn one case the husband druged the mother for years then committed her then / abondoned her --and courts gave her no rights cuz she was in a hospital-- men are really abusive at times-- and courts need to help these women and investigate what is happening after the divorces--in this case he got
I couldn't imagine ever hurting my own children. This cracked me up though, that the author said there is a type of woman who kills her children who has "the narcissistic idea that the child is stymieing the mothers freedom, happiness or chance at a better life."
Unless you are a horrific person, a child does indeed inhibit your freedom.
And woman's chances for education, career, etc..becomes extremely limited if she becomes the sole caretaker and provider for her children. The stress is something you cannot imagine unless you have been in that position.
As for happiness, people's feelings of happiness are relative. In general though, freedom and a belief that one has the chance to improve their living situation or fulfill their ambitions is crucial to happiness. To say that it is narcisstic to feel that one's chances for freedom, happiness and a better life have been to a large degree postponed or thwarted when one becomes a parent, or is left as a
men use to leave all the pressure to their wives, they are not all the time looking for their children, it is abuse not take their wives to the doctor, they do not want to have medical bills to pay, but when they get ill, they ask for help with that money that both earned, women that stay at home has not the same medical privileges like their husband. 50 is and old age to have a 13 year old kid. perhaps she is starting with menopause syntoms, that are terrible, the stop of hormone balance, it is abuse not to take this women to a doctor,
"Mothers are involved in the murder of their children 60% of the time and are 2 1/2 times as likely to murder a child without the father's involvement as a father is to murder a child without the mother's involvement. Why is it, then, that custody is given to mothers 90% of the time?"
Children SPEND MORE TIME IN THE CARE OR CUSTODY OF THEIR MOTHERS compared to fathers. You take this into consideration, the percentage of mothers who kill their children is quite small. However, when you take into consideration the amount of time children spend in the care or custody of FATHERS, the percentage of fathers who murder their children IS WAY OUT OF PROPORTION FOR THE AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT IN THE CARE OR CUSTODY OF KIDS. In reality, CHILDREN ARE AT A HIGHER RISK OF BEING KILLED BY THEIR FATHERS. That said, mothers get custdy 90% of the time because FATHERS AGREE TO LET THE MOTHERS HAVE CUSTODY, or the mother gets custody BY DEFAULT BECAUSE THE FATHER ISN'T AROUND. That 9
@Apryl: They know about animals killing their young. That's why the article mentioned wild primates specifically. Since humans are primates, it is specifically wild primate behavior - not felines, rodents, etc. - that we can look at to get the best idea of how humans would naturally behave if not for the influences of civilization.
Believe you me, I do NOT condone or understand the killing of one's children. But one line in your article throws me off : "Deliberate killing of ones own infant has never been observed in wild primates." Many mammals kill their own young. Some dominant animals may eat young animals in order to enforce their dominance over submissive group members. Other animals may eat young in order to satisfy hunger pains or due to psychological stress, due to overcrowded conditions. A lot of felines kill their young if they know they will not be able to raise it due to weather conditions or lack of nutrition. I think that these feelings and thoughts can be inherent in humans as well. It's not right but it is common enough obviously (3/5 childeren are filicides) that this problem needs to be RE-EVALUATED by the "professionals".