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Andrea Yates and the Criminalization of the Filicidal

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Andrea Yates and the Criminalization of the Filicidal Maternal Body

Desirée A. West and Bronwen Lichtenstein
Feminist Criminology 2006 1: 173
DOI: 10.1177/1557085106288863

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2005 Undergraduate Student Paper Award
Winner of the Division on Women and Crime Feminist Criminology
Volume 1 Number 3
July 2006 173-187
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Criminalization of the Filicidal http://online.sagepub.com

Maternal Body
Desirée A. West
Bronwen Lichtenstein
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

On March 12, 2002, Andrea Yates was found guilty of murder for drowning her five
children. Media reports of the Yates trial indicate that she was judged according to the
idealization of mothers as self-sacrificial and nurturing. This article uses the theory of the
sociology of the body to analyze Yates’s crime in relation to mental illness, gender roles,
and embodied motherhood. The authors present a brief history of the crime of filicide and
discuss the social factors that contribute to maternal filicide and the mental insanity
defense in relation to the Yates trial. The authors conclude that there are no easy answers
to the maternal filicide conundrum but that it is certain the Yates trial will bring renewed
attention to the embodiment of such women in defining the criminality of their actions.

Keywords: Andrea Yates; filicide; criminalization; maternal body

State of Texas vs. Andrea Yates

On March 12, 2002, the state of Texas found Andrea Yates guilty of capital murder. In
2001, she drowned her five children (all younger than age 7) because, she claimed, she was
possessed by Satan. Andrea pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) to the charges,
claiming that her illness impaired her ability to determine right from wrong. The defense
argued that she was suffering from delusions caused by postpartum psychosis when she
drowned her children. However, a jury of her peers did not agree and found her guilty of
murder in the first degree. She was later sentenced to life in prison. This sentence was over-
turned for technical reasons. Andrea is now in a psychiatric hospital awaiting a new trial.

When Andrea Yates called to report the murder of her five children, police arrived
to find four wet children lying on the mother’s bed beneath a blanket and the fifth child
floating lifelessly in the bathtub. Unlike most cases, the Yates murder case appeared
open and shut because the mother admitted to the crime. However, Yates’s plea of
NGRI introduced a critical element into the case. The defense claimed that Yates was
delusional because of postpartum psychosis and, therefore, could not be held account-
able for her actions. Furthermore, the defense held not only that Yates had a history of
mental illness but also that her illness was exacerbated by psychosocial stressors such

173

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174 Feminist Criminology

as a lack of paternal support, a strict evangelical religious background, a feeling of

personal inadequacy, and a sense of conflict between society’s ideology of maternalism
and her personal failures (Hyman, 2004; Spinelli, 2004). This article examines the
criminalization of the filicidal body and social constructions of maternal filicide with
the case of Andrea Yates as a point of reference.
In analyzing the filicidal body, we draw on such concepts as the maternal body, the
mentally ill body, and the overburdened and socially isolated body in relation to filici-
dal criminality. This framework is based on the sociology of the body, which posits that
individuals are embodied through social constructions of ethnicity, gender, class, or
age (a social constructionist view), with physical or mental capacities influencing rela-
tions between actors and social institutions. The theory section is followed by a brief
history of the criminalization of filicide and its perpetrators and then discussion of the
various risk factors for committing filicide. Finally, we locate the filicidal body in the
legal system by exploring the validity of an insanity defense for mentally ill women
who kill their children, an issue that was brought to the nation’s attention in the Andrea
Yates trial. Our analysis of the crime of filicide and its perpetrators is based on a liter-
ature review of the history of filicide and its criminal sanctions, current filicide statis-
tics (e.g. demographics and rate of occurrence), feminist explanations of social factors
in committing filicide, and the mental health literature on postpartum psychosis.

Theoretical Framework

This article references Shilling’s (2003) theory of the body to analyze the crime
of maternal filicide. Shilling drew on existing sociological theories to develop his
own theory of the body as a critical site for social analysis. He argued that early soci-
ologists established the body as an absent-presence in sociology, meaning that the
body was never explicitly studied in its own right. This early approach focused on
aspects of the body most easily identified as social so that the new discipline of soci-
ology could separate itself from biologically based natural sciences. However, with
the rise of modernity and subsequent attention to the body as a project for both social
control and self-identity, sociologists such as Shilling recognized the importance of
the corporeal body as a topic of study in its own right.
The naturalistic and social constructionist theories are often cited in sociological
approaches to the body. Naturalists posit that the body is a biological phenomenon
that is presocial; that is, human actions are influenced by genetic rather than envi-
ronmental factors. Shilling (2003) argued that naturalistic views are reductionist
because the role of human agency is not taken into account in interactions between
individuals and society. By contrast, social constructionism holds that social mean-
ings and practices are more definitive of human experience than biology. One view
of social constructionist theory is that the body is wholly constructed by social dis-
course and is endlessly malleable, whereas another holds that being embodied plays

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 West, Lichtenstein / Andrea Yates 175

an integral role in human agency. Shilling took the latter view but also argued that
neither the naturalist nor social constructionist view can explain why the body has
assumed a central role in contemporary society.
Shilling (2003) drew on the work of theorists such as Turner, Bourdieu, and Elias
to argue for the centrality of the body in modern society. First, he posited that the
body is a material and biological phenomenon that cannot be reduced by social
processes or relations and, thus, argued for a more foundational view of the body.
According to this perspective, bodies are molded by social changes (e.g., through
technological or medical advances), but they cannot be invented or wholly consti-
tuted by social forces. Second, Shilling argued the nature/culture dualism is unnec-
essary because the body is inherently biological and social and, thus, is generative
of social relations. By this, Shilling acknowledged not only that the body has a phys-
ical basis in age, sex, and other bodily attributes that mark the body in terms of
its social worth but also that human bodies engage in social activism. Examples of
this social activism include female, gay, disabled, or “AIDS” bodies whose physical
attributes or health status have been deployed in the pursuit of equal rights.
A final theme of Shilling’s (2003) theory is that although the body is enabling, it is
also limiting. Even with the knowledge and technical capabilities to alter the body,
one’s biology can still limit the body’s performance and capabilities. This approach has
particular relevance for scholarly understandings of the intersections between mental
health and crime. For example, the mentally ill body is often central to legal arguments
involving criminal intent, criminal culpability, and penalties for crimes such as filicide.
The interpolation of the body as a limiting or enabling factor in criminal actions offers
a theoretical approach to help counter prevailing arguments about individual account-
ability for criminal actions regardless of extenuating circumstances (Siegel, 2003).
This trend posits that deviant or criminal behavior is voluntaristic even when severe
mental illness such as postpartum psychosis is involved. Shilling’s theory situates the
body as a central point of social analysis, thus, bridging the conceptual divide between
biological and social factors for crimes such as filicide. In this article, Shilling’s soci-
ology of the body is the basis for discussing how the maternal body has been con-
structed in historical terms and in other cultures, how maternal filicide has been cast in
terms of an idealized standard for motherhood, and how the Andrea Yates case repre-
sents an example of women’s embodiment in relation to mental illness and filicide.

Criminalization of Filicide

Definition of Filicide
The killing of one’s child can be categorized in three ways. The term filicide is used
for any child aged 1 to 18 who is murdered by his or her parents (Palermo, 2002).
Neonaticide is the killing of a child within 24 hours of delivery, and infanticide refers

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176 Feminist Criminology

to the murder of a child up to 1 year old (Palermo, 2002). Andrea Yates technically
committed both infanticide and filicide because her children ranged in age from 6
months to 7 years.

Historical Overview
Western practices in relation to filicide date back to ancient Roman and Greek
times (Palermo, 2002; Spinelli 2004). Ancient Greeks would offer their children as
sacrifices to the gods, or fathers would decide the fate of their children as a means
to control the population (Spinelli, 2004). The infant body was seen as dispensable
because it had no use value or physical capital (Shilling, 2003). In 374 AD, Roman
law ruled that the killing of an infant would be murder; however, filicide remained
common practice until the 18th century (Gauthier, Chaudoir, & Forsyth, 2003;
Palermo, 2002; Spinelli, 2004). During the Middle Ages, infanticide declined in the
West, but babies with deformed bodies or those who cried excessively were killed
by their mothers because they were viewed as sinful and evil (Palermo, 2002). Up
until the 18th century, it was common for children to be smothered, strangled, or
drowned in England, France, and Russia; but by the 19th century, filicide was less
acceptable and was again criminalized as murder (Dobson & Sales, 2000; McKee &
Shea, 1998; Palermo, 2002). In England, however, judges did not like sentencing
mothers to death and rarely did so (Dobson & Sales, 2000). In the 20th century, dif-
ferences emerged between the United States and other Western countries in how the
crime of maternal filicide was perceived and managed. For example, in England,
under the Infanticide Act of 1922, women were charged with manslaughter rather
than murder on the basis that filicidal women were usually mentally ill (Dobson &
Sales, 2000). This shift did not occur to the same extent in the United States; instead,
maternal filicide remained a crime involving a charge of first-degree murder, plac-
ing the burden of proving a mental illness on the defendant (Dobson & Sales, 2000).
Filicide has a basis in child abuse and violence, with Anglo-Saxon traditions
contributing to the social acceptability of violence against children (Williams, 1976). As
an example, Williams (1976) pointed to the Anglo-Saxon nursery rhymes and lullabies
that expressed filicidal impulses prior to the 20th century. The corporal punishment
that children experienced in the rhymes went unquestioned because of its playful and
comic presentation. For example, the following jump rope rhyme endorses filicidal
ideations.

Fudge, Fudge, call the judge! Mama has a newborn baby.

It isn’t a boy; it isn’t a girl. It’s just an ordinary baby.
Wrap it up in toilet paper!
Throw it down the elevator!
First floor, miss! Second floor, miss! Third floor, miss! Fourth floor, baby
hits! (Williams, 1976, p. 3)

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 West, Lichtenstein / Andrea Yates 177

Another source of the origins of American filicidal impulses is found within

religious traditions and the religious body (Williams, 1976). Judeo-Christian texts
contain references to killing children and justifications for inflicting corporal punish-
ment. A few examples are the sanctioning of stoning children to death (Deuteronomy),
burning children (Chronicles), and having disobedient children torn apart by bears
(Kings 2; Williams, 1976). It has even been suggested that a relationship exists
between the biblical origins of the pain that is inflicted on the maternal body during
childbirth and the subsequent pain that mothers inflict on their infants (Reingold, as
cited in Williams, 1976).
Williams (1976) identified the family institution as integral to deep-rooted filicidal
impulses in the United States. Child abuse and violence within the U.S. family became
less socially acceptable only during the 1970s as families became smaller and the
infant body gained in social value (Williams, 1976). However, it is still socially
acceptable to use physical force to maintain control within the home, and no other
institution (except the police and the military) is given permission to use such explicit
violence for social control. This need to maintain social control of the infant body
dates back to 18th-century Europe and the cultivation of civilized manners in court
society (Shilling, 2003). Elias (as cited in Shilling, 2003) wrote that it was the parents’
duty to teach their children to become civilized as defined by upper-class norms and
values. Foucault (1977) also wrote about the harsh discipline in European society that
was used to produce docile bodies. Filicidal acts resulting from parental discipline are
not limited to the United States or Europe, but much of the scholarly attention centers
on changing attitudes toward corporal punishment in Western society.

Gender and the Filicidal Body

Historically, the paternal body has been the parental figure that determined the fate
of the child’s life (Palermo, 2002). In modern times, it is the mother who is thought
to be likely to kill her children, especially younger children (Gauthier at al., 2003,
Palermo, 2002). Gauthier et al. (2003) attributed this assumption to women murderers
having a tendency to kill those with whom they have intimate relationships, including
their children. Another theory is that women are the primary caregivers, which places
them in greater contact with their children (Adinkrah, 2001). However, U.S. statistics
indicate that 31% of children younger than the age of 5 are killed by fathers, 30% are
killed by mothers, and 23% are killed by male acquaintances (Bureau of Justice
Statistics, n.d.). Thus, the reality is gender equivalency in relation to biological parents
who commit filicide.
For women in the United States, the maternal filicidal body is often associated
with being young, unmarried, poorly educated, and dependent on family members
and with concealing a pregnancy (McKee & Shea, 1998; Palermo, 2002; Stanton,

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178 Feminist Criminology

Simpson, & Wouldes, 2000). Such women are likely to kill infants or young
children. Studies are inconclusive about the characteristics of mothers who kill older
children. Stanton et al. (2000) reported that the women are more likely to be older
and married with fewer psychosocial stressors. Palermo (2002) agreed that the
women tend to be older and married but also noted that family dysfunction is com-
mon in such cases. Both Stanton et al. and Palermo agreed that women are more
likely to kill older children if they suffer from major mental illness.
A sense of personal inadequacy is a defining characteristic in cases of maternal
filicide (Stanton et al., 2000). Self-doubts often arise from the conflict between the
idealized maternal body and the practical daily aspects of motherhood (Hyman,
2004). Goffman (as cited in Shilling, 2003) described the crisis that results when the
body’s actual social identity no longer reflects the body’s virtual social identity. The
actual social identity is how society conceptualizes someone, whereas the virtual
social identity is how someone interprets her or his own identity, and it is usually
governed by the desire to present a “normal” body as society views it. The image of
the “Everymom” presented by Hyman (2004) depicts a maternal body that experi-
ences nothing but joy, and mothers who experience frustration or anger are charac-
terized as deviant or immoral.
Men are more likely to commit filicide in the United States; thus, the paternal
body cannot be excluded from our analysis. Several characteristics separate the
motivations of the paternal filicidal body from the maternal filicidal body. In a study
of 48 filicide cases in London, men exhibited a tendency to kill older children to
retaliate against their wives and to regain patriarchal power within the relationship
(Adinkrah, 2001; Wilczynski, 1995). Chernin (as cited in Shilling, 2003) reported
that such men fear and do not trust the female body and that they feel threatened by
women’s changing roles in society. The other motivation for men committing filicide
was physical discipline that ended in death (Wilczynski, 1995). In contrast, filicidal
women often kill their children for altruistic reasons arising from delusional thoughts
about being “unnatural” mothers (e.g., they believe the children will be better off dead
than subject to their “bad parenting”; McKee & Shea, 1998; Stanton et al., 2000;
Wilczynski, 1995). Research tends to report differences between paternal and mater-
nal filicides, but a study by Marleau, Poulin, Webanck, Roy, and Laporte (1999) also
finds similarities between the perpetrators. In this Canadian study of 10 men, Marleau
et al. found that like women, several of the men suffered from poor social support and
some form of mental illness.
An examination of filicide cases in Fiji finds that the demographics of the filicidal
body are similar to those of Western cultures (i.e., young unmarried women, low
socioeconomic status, minimal education; Adinkrah, 2001, 2002). The main differences
were found in the motivations for the killings. In Western countries, common reasons
for committing filicide related to psychosocial distress or mental illness (Adinkrah,
2001; Stanton et al., 2000; Wilczynski, 1995). In contrast, filicides occurring in Fiji
were the result of unwanted children and fatal child abuse (Adinkrah, 2001, 2002). In

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 West, Lichtenstein / Andrea Yates 179

Fiji, a woman having a baby out of wedlock becomes highly stigmatized, with babies
sometimes being killed at birth to maintain the façade of virginity. Physical discipline
is believed to be effective in controlling children’s behavior, and Fijian filicides are often
the result of fatal physical discipline (Adinkrah, 2001). A lack of research exists on dif-
ferences between men and women who commit filicide in other non-Western cultures
(Adinkrah, 2001). However, factors in committing filicide have been noted for reasons
of “population control, inability of the mother to care for the child, congenital defects,
and ritual sacrifice” (Briggs & Cutright, as cited in McKee & Shea, 1998, p. 679). In
highly populated countries such as China and India, preferences for male children mean
that filicide on unwanted female children still occurs on a regular basis (Gupta, 2005).

Mental Illness and the Maternal Filicidal Body

Mental illness is a stigmatized condition in U.S. society (Ritsher & Phelan, 2004).
Following Goffman (1963), Shilling (2003) explained stigma in terms of deeply dis-
credited attributes that translate to personal or moral failings and deviant behavior.
This paradigm is especially true for mentally ill mothers (Bassett, Lampe, & Lloyd,
1999; Diaz-Caneja & Johnson, 2004) because they are often deemed to be unsuit-
able parents (Diaz-Caneja & Johnson, 2004). The stigma means that the mentally
ill mother often fears that her children will be taken away because of her putative
inability to care for her children (Bassett et al., 1999; Diaz-Caneja & Johnson,
2004). She may also forgo proper medical treatment for her mental illness to avoid
attracting attention to her stigmatized condition (Bassett et al, 1999).
Mental illness is sometimes associated with filicide, with estimates ranging from
14% to 33% of the total for this crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1994; McKee &
Shea, 1998; Stanton et al., 2000). These illnesses include major depressive disorder,
schizophrenia, postpartum depression, and postpartum psychosis (Spinelli, 2004;
Stanton et al., 2000). Andrea Yates was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis; thus,
this article focuses on this illness as a point of discussion. Postpartum psychosis dif-
fers from postpartum depression in its severity and symptomology. Like other victims
of psychosis, women afflicted with postpartum psychosis often experience delusions
and disorientation (Bright, 1994). One study reports that the symptoms of postpartum
psychosis are more frequent than for other psychoses (Connell, 2002). The time of
recovery is also longer, with rates of recurrence being greater for women with post-
partum psychosis than for women suffering from postpartum blues or depression.
Up to 85% of U.S. mothers experience postpartum illness (Bright, 1994). Of these
women, 7% to 10% will have serious postpartum disorders (Millis & Kornblith,
1992). Still, only 1 to 2 new mothers per 1,000 will experience the most serious dis-
order of postpartum psychosis (Millis & Kornblith, 1992; Sharma & Mazmanian,
2003; Spinelli, 2004). Although postpartum psychosis is less common than other
postpartum disorders, its recurrence in 1 of every 7 deliveries is extremely high

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180 Feminist Criminology

(Bright, 1994). A recurrence of psychosis has been reported in up to 90% of women

(Millis & Kornblith, 1992; Spinelli, 2004).
Biological factors (e.g., sudden drop in hormone levels) and psychological factors
(e.g., history of psychotic illness) put some female bodies at a considerably higher risk
for developing postpartum psychosis than others (Bright, 1994; Connell, 2002; Millis
& Kornblith, 1992; Sharma & Mazmanian, 2003; Spinelli, 2004). Social factors also
play a role in developing psychosis (Bright, 1994; Connell, 2002; Coodley, 2002;
Millis & Kornblith, 1992; Spinelli, 2004). In the case of postpartum psychosis, social
pressures interact with delusional thoughts so that mentally ill mothers may feel com-
pelled to kill their children “for their own good” (Palermo, 2002; Stanton et al., 2000).
Stanton et al. (2000), Bright (1994), and Connell (2002) found that social isolation and
lack of paternal support were almost always present in filicidal women diagnosed with
postpartum psychosis.

Andrea Yates and the Maternal Filicidal Body

Andrea Yates embodies the mental health problems and social pressures of the
“altruistic” filicidal mother. Her background is similar to other filicidal mothers in that
she had a preexisting mental illness and little social support for her multiple caregiv-
ing roles. Andrea was married in 1993 and gave birth to five children within 7 years,
all of whom were to be homeschooled (Thomas et al., 2001). Andrea and her family
had a history of psychiatric illnesses including bipolar disorder, major depression, and
mood swings (Spinelli, 2004; Yates v. Texas, 2005). Andrea’s cognitive disorganization
and delusions were evident through her ideations in which Satan directed her to kill
her children and were exacerbated by feelings of inadequacy as well as by religious
beliefs that emphasized motherhood and homemaking for women (Spinelli, 2004). Her
husband was a strict evangelical Methodist, following the teachings of a minister who
preached that mothers are responsible for their children’s spiritual lives (Hyman, 2004;
Thomas et al., 2001). A child who was not saved by the age of 13 or 14 years was
“most certainly damned” (Hyman, 2004, p.196). Andrea had little outside support in
raising and educating her five children—she alone was responsible for caregiving, home-
schooling, and “saving” her children (Hyman, 2004; Thomas et al., 2001). Andrea did
not call attention to her mental illness and maintained the fiction of maternal functioning
to outsiders (Spinelli, 2004).

The Maternal Body

The social stereotype of the “Good Mother” plays an important role in understanding
Andrea Yates as the maternal filicidal body. As noted, case studies of mothers who mur-
dered their children indicate that all of the mothers felt a sense of personal inadequacy
(Palermo, 2002). Yates admitted being a bad mother to police and felt that her children

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 West, Lichtenstein / Andrea Yates 181

were “hopelessly damaged” (Hyman, 2004; Thomas et al., 2001). Several case studies
by Stanton et al. (2000) on women who murdered their children reveal the importance
that filicidal women place on being a good mother. One woman in particular commented
that she had always wanted to be the “perfect mother” (Stanton et al., 2000, p. 1454).
The “perfect mother” is idealized as completely selfless and giving with an endless
tolerance for stress (e.g., wailing babies; Coodley, 2002; Hyman, 2004; Naylor, 2001;
Shilling, 2003). This role is held to be biologically determined rather than socially
learned (Coodley, 2002; Hyman, 2004; Naylor, 2001). Throughout the 1970s, feminist
thought deconstructed the naturalized myth of the perfect mother to undermine the rep-
resentations of women solely in terms of incubators and nurturers (e.g., Coodley, 2002).
However, the idea that all women are natural mothers has resurfaced in recent times,
with the female body again being valued for child-rearing abilities (Coodley, 2002;
Hyman, 2004; Shilling, 2003). Andrea Yates’s role as the ideal mother in patriarchal
terms (pious wife and multiparous mother who homeschooled her brood) placed her on
a collision course with her severe mental illness. However, even “sane” women may feel
the burden of naturalizing discourses about vocational motherhood when confronted
with the demands of child rearing and the often-conflicting emotions about their role.
Mothers who have violent thoughts are unlikely to admit to them because they are
unnatural, and they do not want to be seen in a bad light or considered deviant (Naylor,
2001; Palermo, 2002; Spinelli, 2004; Stanton et al., 2000). Naylor’s (2001) study
reveals that mothers who were considered by the public to be unnatural were stigma-
tized as “wicked bodies” and as “monsters.” Stanton et al. (2000) reported that the
social pressure on women to be good mothers actually increased the risk of mothers
abusing their children.
Because of their “wicked” and unnatural feelings, women who do not fit the good
mother stereotype may feel they cannot do a good job of raising their children. These
feelings are associated with altruistic filicide in the cases of women who kill their
children to protect and save them (Palermo, 2002; Stanton et al., 2000; Wilczynski,
1995). Andrea Yates is typical in this respect because a recurring theme in maternal
filicide is the wish to protect children from “bad” or even “evil” mothering (Stanton
et al., 2000). One woman in Palermo’s (2002) study explained that she had killed
her children because she had “messed up her children’s lives because she was not a
‘good mother’” (p. 136). Approximately one third of categorized filicides are labeled
as altruistic killings (Stanton et al., 2000).

The Overburdened Body

A major theme in the Andrea Yates case was that she felt overburdened by her
housekeeping, teaching, and caregiving responsibilities. Andrea was not alone in bear-
ing the primary responsibility for raising and educating her children. In U.S. society,
women are often left to handle the roles of wife, mother, and employee with little
or no social support (Shilling, 2003). Rosen (as cited in Shilling, 2003) claimed that

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182 Feminist Criminology

women who must be a wife, mother, and laborer often experience “intense emotional
and physical stress: there are simply too many conflicting demands, too many things
to do, too little time to do them” (p. 29). Women’s participation in the workforce can
exacerbate the problem of being physically and mentally overburdened if mothers are
required to do a “double shift” at home and work. One study finds that women’s
increased participation in the labor force positively correlated with higher rates of
maternal and paternal filicide (Fiala & LaFree, 1988). However, Kessler and McRae
(1982) revealed that working mothers who received support and child care assistance
from their husbands experienced less psychological distress, suggesting that the criti-
cal social factor in maternal filicide is the lack of partner support. Other studies also
report that overburdened bodies are more likely to resort to murder when they have a
lack of resources or a lack of social support (McKee & Shea, 1998; Palermo, 2002;
Simpson & Stanton, 2000).
Andrea Yates’s burden of parental responsibility was considerable because she
provided full-time care for her five children, educating them through a home-school
program and overseeing their religious development (Hyman, 2004; Thomas et al.,
2001). At the time of the murders, she had also been taking care of her sick father.
Andrea’s lack of workforce participation had the disadvantage of isolating her from
the community and restricting her to the home under patriarchal control. She had no
support for her numerous roles from either her family or the community, and the lack
of social support is likely to have exacerbated her mental illness (Spinelli, 2004). In
citing studies on risk factors for filicide, Connell (2002) found levels of social sup-
port to be a more potent risk factor for postpartum depression than either demo-
graphic or biological factors.

Postpartum Psychosis: A Valid Defense?

Andrea Yates pleaded NGRI to the charge of killing her children, with her defense
team claiming that she was under the influence of delusions from postpartum psy-
chosis (Connell, 2002; Hyman, 2004). Of all the postpartum disorders, only postpar-
tum psychosis is a medically valid defense because it can impair the ability to tell right
from wrong (Connell, 2002). The question of the mother’s mental state and her ability
to determine right from wrong at the time of the crime is crucial for an NGRI defense
because half of all U.S. states (including Texas) follow the M’Naghten test—a key
factor in court decisions for NGRI cases (Connell, 2002; Slobogin, 2003).
The M’Naghten test holds that the accused must have been in a state of mental
illness and, therefore, must not have known the nature of his or her actions at the time
of the crime. If the offender did appreciate the nature of the act, then to qualify for an
insanity defense, he or she must not have realized that the act was wrong (Connell,
2002; Slobogin, 2003). It is important to recognize that the M’Naghten test requires
the accused body to be insane because of a mental disease at the time of the act. It is

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 West, Lichtenstein / Andrea Yates 183

also true that the M’Naghten test does not excuse the behavior of offenders who under-
stood the nature of their actions but were compelled to act anyway (e.g., because of
voices directing the behavior; Slobogin, 2003). Thus, the M’Naghten test does not take
into account a lack of volitional control in criminal cases.
Andrea Yates’s defense found it difficult to meet the strict standards of the
M’Naghten test. First, her calm, seemingly normal demeanor immediately after the
murders brought into question her delusional state at the time of the crime (Connell,
2002; Spinelli, 2004). However, sudden mental changes are characteristic of the symp-
toms of postpartum psychosis, and mental health experts have argued that the defen-
dant’s sanity should not be evaluated after the act (Connell, 2002; Spinelli, 2004).
Second, according to Andrea, she was “possessed” by Satan, who directed her to kill
her children to save them from hell and her evil maternal nature (Hyman, 2004). The
prosecution used this statement to suggest that Andrea knew the criminal nature of her
actions, especially after saying that Satan would die once she was executed for her
actions (Hyman, 2004; Spinelli, 2004).
U.S. courts typically rely on medical experts and the medical literature to corrob-
orate details of an offender’s mental illness (Spinelli, 2004). Unfortunately, there is a
lack of literature outlining the symptoms of the postpartum psychotic body. The
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision)
(American Psychiatric Association, 2000) does not have a specific diagnostic section
for postpartum psychosis, mentioning only that the symptoms and etiology of the dis-
order are not definitive (Connell, 2002; Spinelli, 2004). The DSM-IV-TR allows for
postpartum onset to be a specifier for mood disorders, but postpartum disorders have
yet to be given diagnostic criteria. It is difficult for women to claim a postpartum dis-
order in an insanity defense because the courts depend on the DSM-IV-TR to legit-
imize mental illness in cases of NGRI (Spinelli, 2004). The one expert psychiatrist for
the prosecution in the Andrea Yates case stated that he believed her to be mentally ill,
but he also believed that she understood the nature and wrongfulness of her actions
at the time of the murders (Hyman, 2004). The combination of these factors made it
difficult for Yates to prove her insanity defense, and she was found guilty of murder
in the 2002 trial.
The question arises about whether medical versus criminal responses are more
appropriate for mentally ill filicidal women such as Andrea Yates. The U.S. legal
system has treated maternal filicide as murder regardless of the mental health status
of the mother. By contrast, postpartum psychosis is a mitigating factor in Britain,
where women are considered to be susceptible to depressive symptoms within the
1st year of childbirth (Dobson & Sales, 2000). Other countries, including Canada,
Australia, Austria, Germany, and New Zealand, have adopted similar approaches to
maternal filicide (Dobson & Sales, 2000). The premise of this model in non-U.S.
criminal justice systems is that filicidal women should be provided treatment for
their illness, and they are usually paroled or sent to mental hospitals rather than
prison (Dobson & Sales, 2000). Dobson and Sales (2000) posited that a middle

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184 Feminist Criminology

ground is needed between other legal systems and the U.S. system for dealing with
filicidal mothers. They argued that although not all mothers should be granted a
manslaughter charge (i.e., lesser sentencing) on the assumption of mental illness,
women suffering from postpartum psychosis have proven their need for mental
health treatment and should be granted such accommodations.
A study by Kendell, Chalmers, and Platz (1987) provides support for using post-
partum psychosis as a mitigating factor in convicting and sentencing women for
filicide. This 12-year study of psychiatric admissions for women being diagnosed
with psychoses during and following pregnancy indicates that the number of women
receiving a diagnosis of psychosis was highest in the first 3 months following child-
birth. The incidence rate slowly declined after the first 3 months but remained
elevated compared to prechildbirth levels for up to 2 years (Kendell et al., 1987). The
study also appears to provide support for NGRI cases. However, we would caution
that committing U.S. filicidal women to a hospital for the criminally insane might not
be an improvement on being imprisoned if they are held on an indefinite basis. It
should be noted at this point that psychiatric hospitalization is possible in the United
States under an NGRI verdict, but courts rarely make this determination (Blau,
McGinley, & Pasewark, 1993; Linhorst & Dirks-Linhorst, 1999). Convictions that go
against an NGRI verdict are often influenced by beliefs that the mentally ill are free
to carry on with life. However, those who are found NGRI must be hospitalized for
psychiatric treatment and in many cases, they remain in the hospital for longer peri-
ods of time than if they had been sent to prison (Linhorst & Dirks-Linhorst, 1999).
Feminists have expressed caution concerning using the NGRI defense for filici-
dal mothers. Gender assimilationists argue that women should be treated the same as
men regardless of any biological differences and that the gender-specific defense
does not belong in a gender-neutral court of law (Connell, 2002; Hyman, 2004). This
argument holds that women’s biological differences should not be considered to be
a hindrance and, thus, should not be acknowledged in the courtroom (Connell,
2002). Assimilationists fear that acknowledgement of gender differences would lead
to further gender stereotypes as posited in naturalist views of the body (Shilling, 2003).
They also fear that biological representations of women’s “different” bodies would
be used to their disadvantage in the case of postpartum psychosis and in reversing
women’s rights. This fear has a basis in historical precedent. In 19th-century England,
for example, women’s susceptibility to postpartum depression was given as a reason
to deny women the right to vote (Connell, 2002).
Cultural feminists take a different view from the assimilationists by arguing that
“men and women should be treated equally, but that certain biological, social, and psy-
chological differences should be accommodated” (Connell, 2002, p. 156). Advocates
for this theory sought leniency for Andrea Yates because her predicament symbolized
the schism between the idealized mother icon and the lived reality of motherhood
(Hyman, 2004). Cultural feminists argued that Yates’s situation arose from her identity
as a traditional wife and mother within a patriarchal marriage (Hyman, 2004). Opponents

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 West, Lichtenstein / Andrea Yates 185

of their position argued that the postpartum psychosis defense discriminates against
men who commit filicide (Connell, 2002). These opponents feel that the gender-
specific defense discounts the natural male body, which is unable to birth children
but suffers the stresses related to caring for newborn children (Connell, 2002). Much
research indicates, however, that the male body is incapable of developing delusion-
inducing postpartum psychosis because it is biologically linked to childbirth and the
female body (Connell, 2002). We would agree with Shilling’s (2003) theoretical posi-
tion that maternal filicide should be viewed in the context of women’s embodiment
during postpartum when it involves being mentally ill from psychosis. This recognition
of embodiment could be used to interrogate gender roles involving overburdened and
socially isolated maternal bodies in addition to mitigating the sentences of filicidal
women such as Andrea Yates.

Concluding Statement

Bodies are incomplete phenomena constructed by society according to role, cir-

cumstances, or stage of life (Shilling, 2003). In the case of women, social construc-
tions are centrally defined in terms of the maternal or nurturing role. We conclude that
stressors resulting from Andrea Yates’s overburdened body and severe mental illness
resulted in the unthinkable in societal terms: the murder of her five children. This crime
of maternal filicide is so antithetical to idealized female embodiment that Andrea’s life
and circumstances became a national symbol of maternal disgrace before her trial.
Although supported by several feminist organizations and others, her criminal body
was shocking to many people because it violated not only a socially constructed
ideology of motherhood but also a seemingly natural law of womanhood. However,
Shilling’s (2003) theory of the body reveals that bodily dysfunction (e.g., postpartum
psychosis and mental illness) acts in powerful ways on human behavior and that fili-
cide is, in fact, evidence of the de-sociability of certain bodies in which “nature” has
gone awry. The question for feminist criminology concerns what the consequences
should be for women who suffer from postpartum psychosis. There are no easy
answers to this conundrum, but it is certain that the Andrea Yates trial and retrial will
bring renewed attention to the embodiment of such women and the role of “female”
mental illness in defining the criminality of their actions.

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Desirée A. West is a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama,
where she is pursuing a doctoral degree in clinical psychology with a psychology-law concentration. Prior
to being admitted to the doctoral program, she completed her BA in psychology and criminal justice at
the University of Alabama.

Bronwen Lichtenstein is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University
of Alabama, as well as a visiting research fellow at the Rural Center for AIDS/STDs at Indiana
University–Bloomington. She has published on domestic violence, illicit drug use, women’s health, and
HIV/AIDS in New Zealand and the United States.

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