Sociological portrait of infanticide in the United states, end XX - beginning of XXI century: victims and perpetrators

This article focuses on mortality in children under 5 years in the United States of homicides. Infanticide has become one of the most common crimes against the person in the United States during the second half of XX - beginning of XXI centuries. This fact contributed to the problem of violent crime against children has been actively developed in American criminology. The following article is devoted to mortality from homicides among children under the age of 5 years old in the United States of America. Statistical reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the period of 1980-2013 have been used as an empirical base for research. Carried out a critical analysis of a wide range of research of American specialists in various branches of science (criminologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, physicians), devoted to the problems of infanticide in the United States. The basic parameters of infanticide, the dynamics and characteristics of this type of crime. Revealed a rather complicated dynamics of infanticide in the United States for a designated length of chronological period’s ups and downs in the development of this type of crime. Victimization characteristics of children died of homicides as per sex, age and race have been presented. It is found that among American children under the age of 5 years, the greatest risk of becoming a victim of premeditated murder was in children under the age of 1 year. Generalized characteristics of criminals having committed infanticide during this period of time as per sex, kinship of the victim, means used to murder have been revealed. This study found that during the period under review the chronological development of the United States of persons detained by the police for the murder of a child under the age of 5 years, which is numerically dominated by men. These statistics can be traced in all age groups of persons who have committed infanticide in the United States in the 1980-2013 periods. Analysis of statistical sources provided the following social characteristics of mothers who killed their own children: the vast majority come from poor families, are relatively young, lonely, or experienced acute tensions with parents in the period before the birth of the child. The authors have analyzed foreign scientific literature, dealing with motivation and socio-psychological characteristics of mothers who killed their babies and presented some separate guidelines on the prevention of this type of crime. They also analyzed the features of infanticide prevention in the United States, aimed at authorities’ activity in crime reducing throughout the country, and identified positive aspects of criminological experience of American experts and the possibility to use it to study the problems and improve the system of infanticide prevention in Russia.

детоубийство, умышленное убийство детей в возрасте до пяти лет, самоубийство, родители, жертвы, преступники, способы убийства, infanticide, homicide among children under the age of 5 years old, suicide, parents, victims, criminals, means of homicide

1. Alder C., Polk K. Child victims of homicide. Cambridge, 2001.

2. Bookman F., Nolan J. The dark figure of infanticide in England and Wales: complexities of diagnosis // Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2006. N 21. P. 869-889.

3. Botash A.S., Blatt S., Meguid V. Child abuse and sudden infant death syndrome // Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 1998. N 10. P. 217-223.

4. Daly M., Wilson M. Killing children: parental homicide in the modern west // Homicide. N.Y., 1988. P. 61-93.

5. Dawson J., Langan P. Murder in families // U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, 1994.

6. Ewingman B., Kivlaham C., Land G. The Missouri child fatality study: underreporting of maltreatment fatalities among children younger than five years of age // Pediatric. 1993. N 91. P. 330-337.

7. Finkelhor D. The homicides of children and youth: a developmental perspective // Out of Darkness: Contemporary Perspectives on Family Violence / Ed. by G.K. Kantor, J.L. Jasinski. Thousand Oaks, 1997. P. 17-34.

8. Friedman S.H., Horwitz S.M., Resnick P.J. Child murder by mothers: a critical analysis of the current state of knowledge and a research agenda // American Journal of Psychiatry. 2005. N 162. P. 1578-1587.

9. Friedman S.H., Hrouda D.R., Holden C.E., et al. Filicide-suicide: common factors among parents who kill their children and themselves // Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 2005. N 33. P. 496-504.

10. Friedman S.H., Hrouda D.R., Holden C.E., et al. Child murder committed by severely mentally ill mothers: an examination of mothers found not guilty by reason of insanity // Journal of Forensic Sciences. 2005. N 50. P. 1466-1471.

11. Gauthier D.K., Chaudoir N.K., Forsyth C.J. A sociological analysis of maternal infanticide in the United States 1984-1996 // Deviant Behavior. 2003. N 24. P. 393-405.

12. Hodgins S., Dube M. Parents who kill their children: a cohort study // Lethal Violence: Proceedings of the 1995 Meeting of the Homicide Research Working Group / Ed. by M. Riedel, J. Boulahanis. Washington, 1996. Р. 141-144.

13. Homicide trends in the United States // U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics / Ed. by J.A. Fox, M.W. Zawitz. Washington, 2007. P. 25.

14. Homicide trends in the US. Infanticide // US Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, 2002.

15. Marks M.N., Kumar R. Infanticide in England and Wales // Medicine Science and the Law. 1993. N 3. P. 329-339.

16. Oberman M. Mothers who kill: coming to terms with modern American infanticide // American Criminal Law Review. 1996. N 34. P. 2-109.

17. Rates of homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among children - 26 industrialized countries // MMWR Morb. Mortal Wkly Report. 1997. N 46. P. 101-105.

18. Resnick P.J. Child murder by parents: a psychiatric review of filicide // American Journal of Psychiatry. 1969. N 126. P. 325-334.

19. Resnick P.J. Murder of the newborn: a psychiatric review of neonaticide // American Journal of Psychiatry. 1970. N 126. P. 1414-1420.

20. Silverman R.A., Kennedy L.W. Women who kill their children // Violence and Victims. 1988. N 3. P. 113-127.

21. Smithey M. Maternal infanticide and modern motherhood // Criminal Justice. 2001. N 13. P. 65-83.

22. Sorenson S.B., Peterson J.G., Richardson B.A. Child homicide in the city of Los Angeles. An epidemiologic examination of a decade of deaths // Maltreatment & Trauma. 1997. Vol. I. Iss. 1. P. 189-205.

23. Thomas D. Not guilty: the case in defense of men. N.Y., 1993.

24. Weisheit R.A. When mothers kill their children // Social Science Journal. 1986. N 23. P. 439-448.

25. Zawitz M.W., Strom K.J. Firearm injury and death from crime, 1993-1997 // US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, 2000.