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The Science of Infanticide and Mental Illness: Velma Dobson and Bruce Sales
The Science of Infanticide and Mental Illness: Velma Dobson and Bruce Sales
The Science of Infanticide and Mental Illness: Velma Dobson and Bruce Sales
Women who murder their children have been the subject of intensive media and
public scrutiny. Reactions have varied from horror at the cruelty of the act to
sympathy for the perpetrator, based on the belief that the mother must have been
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at the time of the offense. As a result, the English and American legal systems have
adopted very different legal responses to this crime. Underlying these legal positions
are assumptions about the effect of childbirth on mental status and the relation of
mental status to the legal criteria necessary to meet a legal defense (e.g., insanity)
or necessary to justify charging the offender with a lesser crime. This article
critically considers the scientific knowledge on infanticide and mental illness to
determine the appropriateness of these assumptions.
Editor's Note. Michael Perlin served as the action editor for this article.—BDS
1098
INFANTICIDE AND MENTAL ILLNESS 1099
that a mother who killed her child, and who showed evidence of mental distur-
bance at the time of the killing, should be tried and sentenced as if she had
committed manslaughter, not murder. In 1938, the Infanticide Act was revised to
its present form through the addition of a statement that lactation, as well as
childbirth, can be the underlying cause of the mother's mental disturbance and
through the restriction that the age of the victim had to be less than 12 months.
The exact wording of the Infanticide Act of 1938 is
Where a woman by any willful act or omission causes the death of her child being
under the age of twelve months, but at the time of the act or omission the balance
of her mind was disturbed by reason of her not having fully recovered from the
effect of giving birth to the child or by reason of the effect of lactation consequent
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upon the birth of the child, then, notwithstanding that the circumstances were such
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that but for this Act the offense would have amounted to murder she shall be guilty
of felony, to wit infanticide, and may for such offense be dealt with and punished
as if she had been guilty of the offense of manslaughter of the child. (Bartholomew
& Bonnici, 1965, pp. 1018-1019)
The act thus gave formal legal recognition to the common belief that a woman
who has given birth may have an altered and disturbed mental status for up to a
year following the delivery of the child. Similar acts granting special legal status
to the crime of infanticide were passed in other countries, including Australia
(Bartholomew & Bonnici, 1965), Austria (Adelson, 1959), Canada (Arboleda-
Florez, 1976; Deadman, 1964), Germany (Adelson, 1959), and New Zealand
(Bartholomew & Bonnici, 1965). In the United States, there has never been formal
legal recognition of a special legal status for a woman who murders her infant.
Instead, the killing of an infant by its mother is considered to be a form of
homicide and is prosecuted in the same manner as any other homicide (Adelson,
1959; Oberman, 1996).
Although there have been some arguments in support of revising the English
and American positions (e.g., Oberman, 1996), ironically what is missing from
these discussions is a critical look at the underlying science of infanticide and
mental illness. Without this information, it is impossible to know whether the
premises adopted within the legal writings are accurate. The purpose of this article
is to review critically the literature on infanticide and maternal mental status
during the 1st postpartum year, to determine whether this body of literature
supports the English legal approach, in which few obstacles prevent a mother who
murders her infant from being tried for or pleading guilty to a lesser offense, or
the American legal approach, which forces the woman to be tried for the crime she
committed, leaving her to prove, during the proceedings, whether her mental
status was sufficiently diminished to justify conviction of a lesser crime or a
reduced sentence.1 The basic issue is whether or not the year following childbirth
represents a special time, when psychological and biological forces interact to
cause mental illness so severe that there should be an assumption that a woman
should not be held fully responsible for an act of murder committed against her
'Readers who are less familiar with criminal law should consult Perlin (1989) for a general
introduction to the insanity defense and diminished capacity doctrine.
1100 DOBSON AND SALES
newly born child and should therefore be prosecuted to a lesser degree than would
be the case if the same act of murder had been committed by another individual.
Three lines of evidence are presented. The first consists of empirical data on
the sentencing and disposition of women who kill their children. The question
addressed is whether there is widespread public sentiment, as reflected in the legal
outcome in infanticide cases, against holding a mother fully responsible for the
murder of her child. The second line of evidence summarizes the demographic,
social, and psychiatric status of women who have murdered their children. The
question addressed is whether women who commit infanticide typically show
stresses or psychiatric diagnoses that suggest that their act was the result of an
altered mental status. An important concept introduced in this section is Resnick's
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suggests that there exists an almost universal public sentiment in favor of reduced
blame for mothers, as compared with fathers who commit identical crimes.
Resnick (1969) reviewed the world literature from 1751 to 1967 and identified
131 cases in which a child between 24 hr and 20 years of age was killed by a
parent.2 In 88 cases, over half of which involved victims less than 2 years of age,
the mother had committed the killing. In the remaining 43 cases, 40% of which
involved victims less than 2 years of age, the father had committed the crime.
Overall, fathers were far more likely to be executed (9%) or imprisoned (63%)
than were mothers (no executions; 27% imprisoned or paroled). Mothers were
more likely to be hospitalized (68%) than were fathers (14%).
Ten years after Resnick's (1969) summary of the world literature, d'Orban
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(1979) confirmed that leniency toward women who killed their children remained
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common within the English court system. Of 84 women who killed their children
during a period of 6 years, only 2 were convicted of murder. The rest were
convicted of manslaughter (n = 40), infanticide (n = 23), or a lesser offense (n =
17) or were found unfit to plead (n — 2). Among the 84 women, only 18 were
sentenced to prison. Two (2%) were sentenced to life in prison and 8 (10%)
received a prison sentence of 18 months to 3 years. Twenty-five of the women
(30%) received probation or a suspended sentence without a requirement for
psychiatric treatment, and the rest were ordered hospitalized for psychiatric
treatment.
Recently, Marks and Kumar (1993) confirmed that English courts continue to
show far greater leniency toward mothers who commit infanticide than toward
fathers who commit the same crime. These authors reviewed the legal outcome of
149 cases in England and Wales in which the mother (68 cases) or the father (81
cases) was suspected of killing a child between 24 hr and 1 year of age. Overall,
there were no differences in the proportion of mothers (72%) versus fathers (80%)
indicted for the crime or in the proportion of mothers (14%) versus fathers (15%)
who were acquitted or convicted of a lesser offense. However, over seven times
as many of the fathers as the mothers were convicted of murder (15% vs. 2%). An
even greater disparity between mothers and fathers was evident in sentencing.
Among the 55 fathers convicted of a homicide (manslaughter or murder), 46
(84%) were sent to prison, 6 (11%) received probation, and 3 (5%) received a
suspended sentence or were ordered to be hospitalized. In contrast, only 8 (19%)
of the mothers convicted of a homicide (infanticide, manslaughter, or murder)
went to prison, 30 (71%) received probation, and 4 (10%) received a suspended
sentence or were ordered to be hospitalized.
In the same report, Marks and Kumar (1993) questioned whether the differ-
ences in sentencing of mothers versus fathers in the English court system was the
result of a difference in the level of violence in killings committed by mothers
versus fathers, rather than the result of a bias of judges and juries in favor of
leniency toward mothers. To answer this question, the authors compared sentenc-
ing of the subset of mothers (n = 16) and fathers (n = 44) who used wounding
2
We have no way of knowing if this is a representative sample of all cases of infanticide that
occurred during the time period reviewed. Bias could have occurred in the reporting of the crimes
and in their subsequent coverage in the literature.
1102 DOBSON AND SALES
violence in the homicide. The results indicated that the disparity in sentencing
remained: 86% of fathers, but only 25% of mothers, were sent to prison.
In summary, in the worldwide legal system, there has been, and continues
to be, a bias in favor of leniency toward mothers who kill their children.
Mothers who kill their children are likely to be placed in a mental institution
or on parole, whereas fathers who commit the same crime are overwhelmingly
convicted of homicide and sentenced to prison. Thus, public opinion, as
expressed in the legal system, appears to hold that a woman who kills her child
is usually mentally disturbed, whereas anyone else, including a father, who
kills a child is a criminal.
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with a psychiatric diagnosis at the time of the crime, 36 (52%) had a personality
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3
Only one article mentioned criminal records in their analysis. Marks and Kumar (1993)
reported that for infanticidal parents,
Fathers were more likely to have committed a previous criminal offence than mothers: 3 (4%)
of mother suspects and 18 (21%) of father suspects had a criminal record. This probably
reflects the general tendency that men are more likely to have a criminal record than women.
(p. 334).
1104 DOBSON AND SALES
confronted with the child at childbirth, they see killing and concealment of the
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infant as the only way to continue their denial of the pregnancy. The second group
of women, those who kill their infants after the first postnatal day, tend to be older
and married, and to have a history of mental illness. The women in the second
group are frequently psychotic or depressed. They are often in situations of family
and social stress, and may believe that killing of the child is the only way to
alleviate the child's suffering or potential suffering.
baseline rate while the women were pregnant, but soared above the baseline rate
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50 PtydKMte admissions
Admission.
30
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10-
birth, remains substantially elevated during the next 2 months, and continues to be
somewhat elevated into the 2nd postnatal year. These data on postpartum psy-
chosis do not address the issue of severe mental illness during the 24-hour period
when neonaticide occurs, but they do provide strong evidence that the 1-year
period during which filicide occurs is a time during which the risk of severe,
debilitating mental illness is greatly increased. Thus, these data support the
English legal position that the 1st postpartum year is a time of high risk for mental
disturbance. However, the increased risk is only for psychosis or mental illness so
severe that it requires hospitalization, not for affective disorders that are typically
treated on an outpatient basis.
show an elevation in prevalence into the 2nd postpartum year. This form of mental
illness is rarely reported in neonaticidal women, but is frequently documented in
filicidal women both prior to and at the time of the crime. A psychotic state can
provide justification for both diminished capacity and insanity defenses. Unfor-
tunately, the scientific literature (as opposed to clinical anecdotes) is devoid of
studies that indicate whether the psychosis in infanticidal women is uniform or
varies in its manifestations, and whether all infanticidal women exhibit symp-
tomatology that would meet the specific requirements of either of the above two
defenses.
Should the Infanticide Act be retained in the English legal system or should
it be modified? Over the past 20 years, this question has been the focus of three
study groups in England and one in Canada. The first of these was the Committee
on Mentally Abnormal Offenders (the Butler Committee), which published its
report in England in 1975 (Home Office and Department of Health and Social
Security, 1975). A primary recommendation of the committee was the abolition of
the mandatory life sentence for murder. This would lessen the need for the
Infanticide Act, as it would permit the judge in a murder case to hand down a
sentence that fit the circumstances of the case. Another recommendation of the
Butler Committee was that, if the mandatory life sentence for murder were not
abolished, the existing legal system could accommodate the type of cases tried
under the Infanticide Act through the defense of diminished responsibility, which
provides that a person with impaired mental responsibility can have a criminal
charge reduced from murder to manslaughter.
In agreement with the Butler Committee, the Law Reform Commission of
Canada (1984) concluded that there was little evidence to support the underlying
rationale of the Infanticide Act. As the provisions of the act were deemed to be
redundant with other legal provisions, the Law Reform Commission recom-
mended that infanticide as a separate legal entity be abolished.
A contrasting point of view was presented by the Royal College of Psychi-
atrists' Working Party on Infanticide (Blueglass, 1978) and the Criminal Law
Revision Committee's Report on Offenses Against the Person (1980). These study
groups expressed the view that prosecution of cases of infanticide under the
defense of diminished responsibility would be too restrictive and would exclude
cases currently included under the Infanticide Act, such as neonaticide, in which
there is typically no evidence of psychiatric abnormality at the time of the crime.
Also, both study groups recommended extending the scope of the Infanticide Act
to include killing of older siblings, to limit the sentence to no more than 2 years,
and to permit the charge of attempted infanticide.
Although not members of any of the study groups, Parker and Good (1981)
in England and Osborne (1987) in Canada have written position papers on the
Infanticide Act, criticizing its preferential treatment of a subgroup of individuals
who have committed homicide. Parker and Good point out that the legal and
moral principles supporting preferential treatment of women who commit infan-
ticide have never been clearly stated, and that, in its preferential treatment of the
perpetrator, the Infanticide Act discriminates against another segment of the
INFANTICIDE AND MENTAL ILLNESS 1109
population, in that it reduces the protection of law with regard to the young
victims of infanticide. Osborne (1987) questions why women who kill their
infants should be treated differently from other homicidal individuals, and why
mental disturbance related to childbirth should have different legal consequences
from mental disturbance not related to childbirth. Furthermore, she points out that
the Infanticide Act, in its preferential treatment of women, perpetuates the sexist
attitude that women should not be accorded full responsibility for their actions.
In summary, the English and Canadian legal systems and individual scholars
have begun to call for the reform of the law regarding infanticide. The overriding
argument is that the Infanticide Act is too broad in that it prevents a case-by-case
determination of whether mental illness contributed to the crime. Scholars argue
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that, as currently articulated, the law incorrectly assumes that all infanticidal
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4
Such testimony is consistent with courts admitting experts to provide educational expert
testimony (also referred to as context or social framework expert testimony).
1110 DOBSON AND SALES
Finally, this same observation also has relevance to proposals for new
legislative responses to infanticide. Some argue that society ought to impose
a lesser criminal sanction (e.g., manslaughter rather than murder) on filicidal
women. Those using this argument incorrectly assume that all women in the
subclass are incapable of meeting the criteria for the higher offense (e.g., murder).
The science underlying infanticide and mental illness does not justify changing
the fundamental American legal response to it—at least at this point in time.
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INFANTICIDE AND MENTAL ILLNESS 1111
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