A glance at the literature on infanticide: the parental killing of unwanted and unloved children.

Abstract

An attempt to compile a comprehensive bibliography of infanticide found 3674 articles, books and theses. About 80% of these publications were obtained and searched for case descriptions of filicide. Of 1267 cases, 1050 had sufficient information to make a diagnosis on the balance of probability. In 417, the death of the child was due to some form of abuse and in 633 to some form of mental illness. This paper deals with abusive filicide under the headings of physical assault (148 cases), the elimination of unwanted children (140), starvation (62), medical abuse (20), sadistic cruelty (17), burial clubs (16), serial killers (7), sexual abuse (4) and the accidental death of neglected children (3). Mothers exceeded fathers in all groups except physical assault and sexual abuse. The literature contained almost equal numbers published before (209) and after 1950 (208), but there were striking differences in the frequency of groups in the early and late periods: while physical assault, medical abuse and serial killing are more common after 1950, the elimination of unwanted children is much less common. Since unwanted pregnancy is a factor in most forms of abusive filicide, it should be a target for prevention.