Defined Terms     Baker's Dozen Problems    Articles & Reports - Bibliography   Petition

5.    Mothers commit Filicide as often as fathers do

The research papers referred to herein evidence that the causes of Filicide are infrequently vanilla. But more often are a constellation of complex contributing factors, particularly when a mother kills her child or children, even well after birth. Seemingly such murders may be due to hormonal imbalances and/or stressors associated with childbirth and caring for an infant/s. 

Below is an extract from When parents kill - ABC News - Hayley Gleeson - 22 Mar 2021

"For mothers, who are more likely to kill children during an acutely psychotic episode, that cargo can be heavy. “There is a lot of significant hormonal, biological change ... even up to the first month postpartum, which we can see manifest in mental illness,” including anxiety, depression and postpartum OCD, said Lia Laios, a perinatal psychiatrist at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.

“At the extreme end ... you might see women who have more severe depression associated with suicidal ideation and possibly intent, but also sometimes infanticidal thoughts,” Dr Laios said. “That can go hand in hand with comorbid psychotic depression, when women become quite unwell, can lose touch with reality and become paranoid, and perhaps develop delusions about the baby.

Below is an extract from An Overview of Filicide Sara G. West, MD 2007:

"In 16th and 17th centuries, a drastic change in the opinion on child murder occurred in Europe. France and then England established laws that made filicide a crime punishable by death. Both countries also presumed that the mother who was on trial for the crime was guilty until proven innocent, meaning that she was responsible for proving to the court that her child was not the victim of murder. The tide changed again with the establishment of the Infanticide Acts of 1922 and 1938 in England. These laws recognized the effect that birthing and caring for an infant can have on a mother's mental health for up to 12 months after the event. These acts outlawed the death penalty as punishment for maternal infanticide, making the punishment similar to that of manslaughter. Several other Western countries have adopted similar laws, with the exception of the United States."

 

Annexure E chronicles eight mothers that committed Filicide/s in Australia that gained a lot of media reporting.

 

 

Fathers and step-fathers that kill their child or children are not affected by hormonal imbalance which is the reason why this Petition seeks the death penalty for only males (over 18) that are found guilty Beyond any doubt of Spouse Revenge Filicide

Below is a second pertinent extract from An Overview of Filicide  Sara G. West:

"Given that stepparents do not share any genes with their stepchildren, they may be less tolerant of them. This may explain why two studies found that step-parents kill children at a much higher rate than biological parents"

Not all Filicides are children under 18 years of age.  Annexure D reveals young women murdered.  The majority were also raped.  At least one of the victims were the child of an aggrieved parent or step-parent.

 

 

 

[bottom.htm]