Maternal filicide in broadmoor hospital 1919–69

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Maternal filicide is defined as the killing by a mother of her child over the age of 1 year. It is distinguished from infanticide, which is defined statutorily as the killing by a mother of her child under the age of 12 months. The reasons for this distinction are set out and a medico-legal history of the latter offence is presented Filicide in mythology, history and literature is reviewed along with legislative change in the United Kingdom. Particular attention is paid to studies of Broadmoor populations (Baker, 1902; Hopwood, 1927) and to a comprehensive American review (Resnick, 1969). Other relevant literature is discussed, including the ascription to the offence of the term the Medea complex by Stern (1948) It had been hoped to examine the suggestion that women who killed their children did so as a catastrophic solution to a problem otherwise insoluble, but the data available did not either support or refute the hypothesis In summary it was found that the modal maternal filicide who was committed to Broadmoor was a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, aged 31–5, married, suffering from an affective psychosis, altruistically motivated (there is only one ‘baby-batterer’ in the cohort) and not influenced by drink or drugs. She has a previous history of psychiatric referral. The modal victim was the youngest child, of either sex, healthy, the sole victim. The age of the victim was 2–5 years, ranging from 1 to 29 years. The offence was carried out by readily available domestic means (suffocation, strangulation, gassing, drowning). It took place in the second quarter of the year and in the middle third of the day There is broad agreement between the findings of this and other comparable studies

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit: