NCJ Number
246525
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 37 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2013 Pages: 753-761
Date Published
October 2013
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study reports a case-series study of 21 women from the United Kingdom convicted of the murder or manslaughter of their child maternal filicide: MF.
Abstract
This study reports a case-series study of 21 women from the United Kingdom convicted of the murder or manslaughter of their child maternal filicide: MF. These cases were reviewed using data provided from police forces and from publicly available resources. Content and thematic analysis and multidimensional scaling techniques were used to analyse the relationships between the variables present in the commission of the crimes. Mothers who killed their children could be categorised as emotionally driven and in despair at their situation, or rejecting their children due to perceiving them as a threat. Mothers who killed their babies neonaticides appeared to form two distinct subgroups: reluctant and detached neonaticidal offenders. These findings offer an insight into the factors that may be of relevance in understanding how a mother may come to commit MF, and are interpreted in terms of disturbed attachment processes.