Neonaticide

90% of neonaticidal mothers are 25 years of age or younger. Less than 20% are married. Less than 30% are seen as psychotic or depressed.[5][6][7] They have typically denied or concealed the pregnancy since conception.[8][1]

45% of all child murders occur in the first 24 hours of life, and thus can be classified as neonaticide.[9] For the period 1982–1987, approximately 1.1% of all homicides have been of children under one year of age. 8–9% of all murders are of persons under 18 years of age. Of these, almost twice as many sons as compared to daughters are victims.[5] In half of the cases death occurs literally "at the hands of" the parent. Weapons are almost never used in neonaticide. Drowning, strangulation, head trauma, suffocation, and exposure to the elements are all common methods.[5]

An early reference to filicide (the killing of a child by a parent) is in Greek mythology. In his play Medea, Euripides portrayed Medea as having killed her two sons after Jason abandoned her for the daughter of the King of Corinth[14] giving us what has been termed the Medea Complex.[15] Under the Roman Law, patria potestas, the right of a father to kill his own children was protected.[16][17] It was not until the 4th century that the Roman state, influenced by Christianity, began to regard filicide as a crime. Still, mothers who killed their infants or newborns received lesser sentences under both the laws of the church and the state.[18][19]

The church consistently dealt more leniently with those mothers whose children died by overlaying, an accidental death by smothering when a sleeping parent rolled over on the infant. The opinions of the church in these deaths may reflect an awareness of one of society's first attempts to understand the severe problem of overpopulation and overcrowding.[20] England has traditionally viewed infanticide as a "special crime," passing its first Infanticide Act in 1623 under the Stuarts and more recently in the Infanticide Acts of 1922 and 1938.[21][22] Most recently England passed the Infanticide Act of 1978 which allows a lesser sentence for attempted infanticide.[23] Unlike England and other European countries, the United States has not adopted special statutes to deal with infanticide or neonaticide. Nonetheless, juries and judges, as reflected in their verdicts and sentences, have consistently considered the difficulties and stresses of a mother during the post-partum period.[24]

A roadside sign in rural Sichuan: "It is forbidden to discriminate against, abuse or abandon baby girls."

The Chinese, as late as the 20th century, killed newborn daughters because they were unable to transmit the family name. Additionally, daughters were viewed as weaker and not as useful in time of war or for agricultural work. In the past, Inuit killed infants with known congenital anomalies and often one of a set of twins.[30] Similarly, Mohave Indians had killed all children of racially mixed ancestry at birth.[31]

In their 1981 paper, Sakuta and Saito[32] reviewed infanticide in Japan and describe the two distinct types of infanticide commonly seen. The Mabiki type corresponds to the ancient means of "thinning out" or population control; the Anomie type, a product of modern society, corresponds to the "unwanted child."

A number of studies have evaluated risk factors in infant homicide with the aim of preventing it.[1]

Anonymous delivery, a system where mothers can give birth in a hospital for free without showing ID, has been found to reduce the rate of police reported neonaticides in Austria.[33]

• Baby hatch
• Child euthanasia
• Infanticide
• Melissa Drexler
• Psychiatric disorders of childbirth
• Safe-haven law
• Unintended pregnancy

• Families, Murder and Insanity, Dr. Neil S. Kaye
• BBC News - France 'underestimates true scale of neonaticide'
• Netherlands Institute for the Documentation of Anonymous Abandonment (NIDAA) about foundlings, baby death, sismotherhood and illegal admission