NCJ Number
131221
Journal
Criminal Justice Abstracts (March, June 1991) Pages: 146-160,315-330
Date Published
1991
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This two-part article reviews the state of knowledge about child homicide and views child homicide as a social problem whose causes need to be understood at local, national, and international levels.
Abstract
A review of the literature indicates that child homicide receives less attention than other forms of homicide and types of child abuse and neglect. Three types of child homicide have been identified: infanticide, child abuse and neglect, and homicide involving the vulnerability of later childhood. Historical researchers have focused on infanticide and are unanimous in finding that infanticide has always existed. Anthropologists have also established the near universality of the practice. While many researchers use demographic explanations of female infanticide, others emphasize cultural factors such as bias toward sons. Explicit evolutionary and biological linkages have additionally been cited in anthropological studies of infanticide. One study of data from 25 developed countries reveals that child homicide remains relatively constant even in societies that seemingly view it negatively. Although child homicide in contemporary societies evokes public horror, relatively little research attention has been devoted to it. This may be due to both the complexity of the phenomenon and the disparate disciplinary orientations of the relatively few researchers in the field. Studies at the macro and micro levels suggest a number of societal, group, individual, and situational variables involved in child homicide that merit further exploration. 107 references