Cross National Comparison of Maternal Filicide

Maternal Filicide: A Cross-National Comparison
Geoffrey R. McKee and Steven J. Shea

William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute and University of South
Carolina School of Medicine
The present study is a review of 20 adult women charged with murdering

their children who were referred to a forensic psychiatric hospital for pre-
trial evaluation. This study compares the demographic, historical, clinical,
forensic, and offense characteristics of these women and their victims to
samples of multinational, British, and Canadian filicidal women. The data
depict a subset of women who suffered from a diagnosable mental disor-
der and were contending with many acute stressors in their lives with
apparently insufficient personal resources or systemic support. The con-
sistency of characteristics across countries suggests that women who kill
their children are nonaddicted, married, low-income, mentally ill, new or
recent mothers under 30 who, acting alone and without weapons, kill
only one of their children, likely of preschool age. © 1998 John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 54: 679–687, 1998.
Few crimes generate greater public reaction than the intentional murder of children. The killing
of children has been recorded in nearly every known society, from advanced, industrialized
countries to primitive groups (Peters, 1980). Though almost universally condemned at present,
certain cultures have allowed children to be killed for reasons of population control, inability of
the mother to care for the child, congenital defects, and ritual sacrifice (Briggs & Cutright,
1994). In the United States in 1992, approximately 6% or 1,352 of 22,540 murder and nonneg-
ligent manslaughter victims were children under age 15, with the number of White and Black
child victims essentially equal (Maguire, Pastore, & Flanagan, 1993). Among children under 9,
boys are as likely as girls to be murdered; however, from ages 10 to 19, males are 5 times more
likely than females to be intentionally killed. The murder victim rate per 100,000 children less
than 13 years old has ranged between 1.7–2.0 since 1976, approximately 20% of the murder
rate of adolescents ages 14 to 17 (Maguire et al., 1993).
The authors wish to thank Allison M. Foster and Christopher Bostdorff for their assistance with data collection and
Mary E. Craig Shea, PhD and George Holmes, PhD for their editorial suggestions. An earlier draft of this paper was
presented at the 1995 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in New York.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Geoffrey R. McKee, PhD, William S. Hall Psychiatric
Institute, P.O. Box 202, Columbia, SC 29202; e-mail: grm70@aol.com
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 54(5), 679–687 (1998)

© 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0021-9762/98/050679-09
10974679, 1998, 5, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(199808)54:5<679::AID-JCLP14>3.0.CO;2-A by <Shibboleth>-member@le.ac.uk, Wiley Online Library on [16/02/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
680 Journal of Clinical Psychology, August 1998
Filicide is the murder of a child by the child’s parent. Among such deaths, neonaticide
(Resnick, 1969, 1970) refers to victims less than 24 hours old whereas infanticide refers to the
killing of a child under 12 months typically by a mother who has not recovered fully from
pregnancy and who suffers from some degree of mental disturbance (Bourget & Labelle, 1992).
According to recent statistics, filicide is a rare event in the United States. In 1992, parents
committed 290 murders of their children (including adult children). Of those, 121 (41.7%) were
committed by mothers (Dawson & Langan, 1994). Few researchers have considered homicidal
parents to be a homogeneous group: Perpetrators of neonaticide are almost exclusively mothers
who are younger, unmarried, less depressed or suicidal, and who are unable to reveal their
pregnancies to others (Bourget & Labelle, 1992), whereas paternal filicides are usually com-
mitted by older men with severe mental disorders (Campion, Cravens, & Covan, 1988).
Resnick (1969, 1970) developed an early classification scheme of maternal and paternal
filicide. However, newer models (d’Orban, 1979; Scott, 1973) are based on the characteristics
of the female parent, as most murders of children under 12 years old are committed by mothers
(Dawson & Langan, 1994). Because each system is based, in part, on the parent’s predomina-
tive motive or mental state, precise classification is difficult (Scott, 1973). The models do,
however, provide a means of comparing data in an attempt to understand these tragedies.
Resnick (1969) developed the first classification system of filicide, which included parents
of both sexes, based on 131 case reports from the world literature on child murder from 1751
to 1967. Five categories were established based on the perpetrator’s most apparent motive:
“altruistic” filicide (64 cases, 48.9%), “acutely psychotic” filicide (28 cases, 21.4%), “un-
wanted child” filicide (18 cases, 13.7%), “accidental” filicide (16 cases, 12.2%), and “spouse
revenge” filicide (5 cases, 3.8%). Resnick did not include 24 cases of neonaticide, believing
newborns who are killed “before their role in the family has been more firmly established”
(p. 73) to be a distinctly different type of filicide. The parent’s motive in altruistic filicide is to
relieve the child of his or her present suffering from a real or imagined condition or the antici-
pated suffering from the parent’s suicide. In the acutely psychotic filicide, the parent kills the
child under the influence of severe mental illness. In unwanted child filicides, the murder
occurs because the parent no longer desires the child for nonpsychotic reasons such as illegit-
imacy or uncertain paternity. Accidental filicides are unintentional deaths that occur from child
abuse. In spouse revenge filicides, the parent’s homicidal impulse is transferred onto the child
to punish the parent’s mate.
d’Orban’s (1979) classification of maternal filicide evolved from her study of 89 cases of
English and Welsh women convicted of murdering or attempting to murder their children. Her
model incorporates neonaticide and is a modification of Scott’s (1973) system based on the
source of the impulse (parent, child, or situation) for the parent’s homicidal act. d’Orban’s six
categories included (a) battering mothers (36 cases, 40.4%), wherein the killing was a sudden
impulsive act triggered by the victim’s behavior; (b) mentally ill mothers (42 cases, 27.0%),
which incorporated all psychotic, depressed, and suicidal women; (c) neonaticides (11 cases,
12.4%), which included infants killed by their mothers within 24 hours of birth; (d) retaliating
women (9 cases, 10.1%) who displaced aggression from the spouse onto the child; (e) mothers
of unwanted children (8 cases, 9.0%) whose children died from their passive neglect or active
aggression; and (f ) mercy killing (1 case, 1.1%) in which the mother, without apparent second-
ary gain, murders to cease her child’s suffering from an actual illness. Though similar to Resnick’s
(1969) model, d’Orban’s more precise, objective criteria reduces misclassification from multi-
determined filicides. For example, her category of mentally ill mothers incorporates all psy-
chiatrically impaired women and is distinguished from mercy filicides in that the child’s suffering
was from a real, not delusionally based illness. In Resnick’s (1969) classification, a parent
might be placed in either category depending on which motive seemed to the clinician to be
more prominent.
Maternal Filicide 681
In an effort to improve classification, Bourget and Bradford (1990) recently proposed a

scheme based on types of clinical situations, including neonaticide and child murders by fathers,
a possibly underreported population (Adelson, 1961; Maguire et al., 1993). Their model, based
on 13 cases, is comprised of five major categories: (a) pathological filicide (3 cases, 23.0%),
which includes parents with major mental illness whose act of murder is likely based on psy-
chotic or altruistic motives and extended homicide-suicide plans; (b) accidental filicide (6
cases, 46%), which incorporates battered child syndrome, unintended death from Munchausen
Syndrome by Proxy (Meadow, 1980; Schreier & Libow, 1993), and other forms of child abuse;
(c) retaliating filicide (1 case, 7.7%), comprising highly unstable parents who murder their
children to punish their spouses; (d) neonaticides (1 case, 7.7%), typically the result of an
unwanted pregnancy; and (e) paternal filicide (2 cases, 15.4%), murder by the child’s father.
The purpose of this study is to describe the demographic, historical, clinical, forensic, and
offense characteristics of filicidal women and their victims and compare these data to samples
of international (Resnick, 1969), English (d’Orban, 1979), and Canadian (Bourget & Bradford,
1990) filicidal women.
METHOD
The present study is a retrospective case review of all adult women charged with murdering
their children who were referred to a university-affiliated forensic psychiatric hospital for pre-
trial evaluation of their competency to stand trial and mental state at the time of offense. Each
woman was evaluated by a staff psychiatrist and psychologist. Case social workers collected
personal histories from records, family members, legal documents, and other collateral sources.
The sample consisted of 20 women charged in the deaths of 26 children drawn from a total of
77 adult female murder defendants who were evaluated between 1986 and 1995.
Because the studies of Resnick (1969), d’Orban (1979), and Bourget and Bradford (1990)
were conducted at different times and under different conditions, direct statistical analysis is
compromised. Descriptive comparisons, however, are made on the variables of the present
study shared by at least one other sample.
RESULTS
The women’s ages ranged from 18 to 66 with an average age of 29.3 years (SD 5 11.1).
Caucasian women comprised 45% of the sample; 55% were African-American. They had com-
pleted an average of 11.25 years of education (SD 5 2.0), and 20% had some college education.
The women had an average full scale IQ of 88.43 (SD 5 20.2, range: 64–135). Six women
(30%) were employed at the time of their arrest; however, 80% of the sample reported family
incomes under $20,000 per year. Seven women (35%) had never married. Thirteen of the
women (65%) were legally married or in a common-law arrangement. Of those, 42.9% described
their marital relationships as abusive. The women reported having a total of 50 children in their
care; 70% reported caring for two or more children. Of the 50 children, more than half (52.0%)
would become victims of maternal filicide.
Historical Characteristics
Seventy percent of the women were raised in two-parent families; Only two reported being
placed in foster care. None were adopted as children. Eighty percent of the women stated that
their primary family income was in the lower third of socioeconomic status. Forty-five percent
of the women had at least one family member with a mental illness. Although none of the
women reported being a victim of child neglect, seven women (35%) reported being sexually
abused (15%), physically abused (20%), or both as children. Although the women were, on
average, almost 20 years old when first pregnant (M 5 19.6, SD 5 3.53), 15% delivered their
first child before age 16. Despite early pregnancies, no other signs of adolescent conduct dis-
order or adult antisocial behavior were present: Only three women (15%) reported being arrested
as an adolescent and only one woman (5%) had been previously arrested as an adult. There
were, however, indications of emotional distress in this sample of women: 26% reported a
history of at least one suicide attempt, 21% reported being physically abused as an adult, and
15% reported prior inpatient psychiatric care.
The attending psychiatrist diagnosed all women in accordance with DSM III-R or DSM-IV
criteria. Clinically, 15 (80%) of the women had a diagnosable mental disorder, with the major-
ity (65%) suffering from a major thought or affective disorder at the time of arrest. None
suffered from an organic mental disorder; 40% were diagnosed with either psychotic or para-
noid disorders, and 25% suffered from major depression at the time of offense. Mean intellec-
tual functioning was only slightly below average, with a WAIS-R mean Full Scale IQ of 88.43
(SD 5 20.2); however, 35% were diagnosed with either Borderline Intellectual Functioning or
Mental Retardation.
Offense and Forensic Characteristics
The biological mother was the perpetrator in 80% of the cases. In the remaining six cases, the
woman, as the stepmother or adoptive mother, was the primary caretaker. In all but one case
(95%), the woman acted alone and usually killed a single child (85%). Not surprisingly, abduct-
ing the child was rare (5%), as all of the women were primary caretakers and the offense
typically occurred in the mother’s home (80%).
The majority of the murders entailed close, active, physical contact between the mother
and a single child victim: 70% of the offenders used manual methods, including shaking or
manual battery (25%), suffocation (25%), or beating with a blunt object (20%); for the remain-
ing 30%, including all three cases of multiple child victims, the mother used more indirect
methods, namely arson (20%) or drowning (10%), while the victims were asleep or sedated.
None of the children were shot or stabbed.
Once the woman was arrested, the majority (65%) confessed to the crime. Of those, how-
ever, one woman blamed the victim and another blamed a codefendant. Given the solitary
nature of maternal homicide, a surprisingly high number of women (35%) denied culpability.
After completing the forensic evaluations, four women (20%) were deemed not competent to
stand trial, approximately twice the rate found in other forensic populations (Melton, Petrila,
Poythress, & Slobogin, 1987). Sixteen of the women (80%) were considered to be legally sane
at the time of the offense and four (20%) were judged to meet a statutory standard of insanity.
Victims
Of the 26 child victims, slightly more than half were boys (53.8%). The average age of the
victims was 32.52 months or 2.7 years old, but victims ranged in age from 1 day to 145 months.
The majority of children (54%) were less than 25 months old at the time of their deaths, and 16
of the victims (61.5%) were between the ages of 1 and 8 years. Only two of the children (7.6%)
were victims of neonaticide, and only one child (3.8%) was older than 8 years. In the 14
families with more than one child, 11 (78%) families had at least one surviving sibling. In 6 of
the 17 single-victim cases (35%) and all three cases involving multiple victims (15%), the
mother killed all of her children.
Cross-National Comparisons
Table 1 compares the classification of filicide types in the present study to Resnick’s (1969)
multinational sample, d’Orban’s (1979) English sample, and Bourget’s & Bradford’s (1990)
Canadian sample. Table 2 depicts the demographic, historical, and diagnostic characteristics of
the women of the present study and Resnick’s, d’Orban’s and Bourget’s and Bradford’s respec-
tive samples. The women’s ages ranged from 24.6 to 31.5 years, and the majority were married
or in a common-law relationship. Neither Resnick nor Bourget and Bradford reported the his-
torical characteristics of the women they studied. In d’Orban’s study, most of the women (57%)
were raised in two-parent homes; however, a sizable minority (25%) reported a family history
of mental illness. Though many of the English women were young when first pregnant (16.5
years of age) and had a prior psychiatric admission (41%), few had histories of criminal arrest
or abuse as a child or adult. In terms of the samples’ clinical characteristics, psychosis or major
depression was often diagnosed. Few were seen as mentally retarded or substance abusers.
Table 3 displays the victim, offense, and forensic characteristics of the present sample
compared to the samples of Resnick (1969), d’Orban (1979), and Bourget and Bradford (1990).
Across the samples, the victims were as likely to be of either gender, were rarely over 5 years
of age, and were often the only victim in the family. The children were rarely killed with guns
or knives; rather, manual methods of murder were employed. The women rarely had a code-
fendant. Although the majority of women were assessed to be competent to stand trial, a sig-
nificant minority were evaluated to be insane at the time of the offense.
DISCUSSION
The present study is highly congruent with previous research on maternal filicide. When com-
pared to women from other English-speaking countries, remarkable similarities were noted in
Table 1. Comparison of Present Sample a to Samples of Resnick b (1969), d’Orban c (1979),

and Bourget & Bradford d (1990)
McKee & Shea Resnick d’Orban Bourget & Bradford

Category % % % %
Pathological filicide 50.0 70.3 27.0 23.0

Mentally ill 35.0 21.4 27.0 7.7
Homicide-suicide/altruistic 15.0 48.9 .0 15.4
Accidental filicide 30.0 12.2 40.4 46.0
Battered child 25.0 12.2 40.4 38.5
Others 5.0 .0 .0 7.7
Retaliating filicide 10.0 3.8 10.0 7.7
Spouse 10.0 3.8 10.0 7.7
Other .0 .0 .0 .0
Neonaticide 10.0 (18.3) e 12.4 7.7
Unwanted child 10.0 13.7 10.1 7.7
Paternal filicide —f —g —f 15.4
a
N = 20, United States
b
N = 88, Multinational, countries unspecified (mothers only)
c
N = 89, England/Wales
d
N = 13, Canada (includes fathers)
e
Excluded from original classification
f
Selection or sample excluded paternal filicide cases
g
Classification incorporated fathers in other groups
Table 2. Comparison of Characteristics of Present Sample a to Samples of Resnick b (1969), d’Orban c (1979),
and Bourget & Bradford d (1990)
Characteristic McKee & Shea Resnick d’Orban Bourget & Bradford
Age (years) 29.3 31.5 24.6 27.3

Married (%) 65.0 88.0 55.0 61.5
Never married (%) 35.0 12.0 19.0 23.1
Low income/SES (%) 80.0 n/r 30.0 53.8
Two parent home (%) 70.0 n/r 57.0 n/r
Mentally ill relation (%) 45.0 n/r 25.0 n/r
Child abuse victim (%) 20.0 n/r 16.0 n/r
Prior adult arrest (%) 5.0 n/r 20.0 n/r
Adult abuse victim (%) 21.0 n/r 19.0 n/r
First pregnancy (years) 19.6 n/r 16.5 n/r
Prior psych. admission (%) 15.0 n/r 41.0 n/r
No diagnosis 20.0 5.0 16.0 .0
Psychosis/schizophrenia 40.0 53.0 16.0 7.7
Major depression 25.0 12.5 21.0 30.8
Adjustment disorder 10.0 10.0 n/r 15.4
Substance abuse 5.0 n/r 9.0 23.1
Mental retardation 5.0 1.0 4.0 n/r
a
b
c
d
N = 9, Canada
n/r = not reported
the perpetrators’ age, marital status, income level, psychiatric diagnoses, avoidance of alcohol
and drugs, methods, and victim characteristics. In the present study, all of the cases could be
classified using the Bourget and Bradford (1990) scheme, with 50% of the cases identified as
pathological filicides, 30% as accidental filicides, 10% as retaliating filicides, and 10% as
neonaticides. The distribution of cases in this study was also consistent with the classification
of d’Orban (1979) and Bourget and Bradford in that each category of maternal filicide (except
d’Orban’s single mercy killing case) was represented. Compared to Bourget’s and Bradford’s
data, pathological filicide cases were almost twice as common and accidental filicides were
much less common. Both categories, however, were substantially larger than any other cat-
egory. The consistency of the data of the present study compared to d’Orban’s and Bourget’s
and Bradford’s data suggests that another classification system for filicide by adult women is
likely not needed. Due to small group sizes, comparisons among filicide types across the coun-
tries’ samples would likely not be meaningful.
The women in this study appear to have been experiencing high levels of stress and a lack
of resources, reinforcing d’Orban’s (1979) analysis of the circumstances leading to maternal
filicide. In terms of identifiable stressors, most of the women had two or more young children
in their care, and a large minority were raising these children alone. The women were attempt-
ing to adjust to the demands of new children, as the majority had given birth within 2 years of
the child’s death. Many, though not most, were involved in ongoing abusive adult relationships.
Most were unemployed, resulting in stressful economic dependence on others. Further, the
majority suffered from diagnosable mental illnesses that they were attempting to manage with-
out treatment or assistance from others. This is consistent with other research (Sammons, 1987)
noting that filicidal women were often depressed, psychotic, suicidal, or a combination of
these.
Table 3. Comparison of Victim, Offense, and Forensic Characteristics of Present Sample a to Samples of Resnick b
(1969), d’Orban c (1979), and Bourget & Bradford d (1990)
.
Characteristic McKee & Shea Resnick d’Orban Bourget & Bradford
Victims
Number per mother 1.3 1.2 1.2 1.1
More than 1 victim (%) 15.0 15.0 15.7 n/r
Female victim (%) 46.0 52.0 n/r 54.0
Age (months) 35.5 40.8 27.6 33.6
Neonaticide 10.0 (18.3) e 12.4 7.7
Less than age 1 (%) 11.5 40.9 44.0 n/r
Older than age 5 (%) 15.0 21.6 11.0 n/r
Older than age 12 (%) .0 5.0 .0 .0
Offense
Codefendant (%) 5.0 .0 .0 n/r
Use of gun or knife (%) .0 17.0 4.1 n/r
Hitting/suffocation (%) 70.0 36.6 51.0 n/r
Forensic
Competent for trial (%) 80.0 n/r 97.0 100.0
Not guilty: insanity (%) 20.0 n/r 26.9 15.4
a
b
c
d
N = 9, Canada
e
Excluded from original classification
n/r = not reported
These women lacked adequate resources with which to cope with the stressors preceding
the children’s deaths. Their limited education and low socioeconomic status suggested they had
few options to resolve their situations. They had fewer intellectual and emotional resources
available to them. Many had below-average intelligence. More than one-fourth had attempted
suicide. Many of the women had negative experiences in their own childhoods and did not
appear to have positive role models on which to base their own parenting styles. Many were
abused as children themselves, and even more had a family history of mental illness.
In contrast to other studies of domestic homicide of American adults, these women did not
employ guns or knives as murder weapons nor were they intoxicated at the time of offense.
Whereas nationally 42% of domestic murders involve shooting or stabbing, the intimate, “hands
on” nature of this study’s murders was consistent with other American filicide cases (Dawson
& Langan, 1994). The great majority of these killings were apparently not due to impaired
judgment from intoxication but, rather, were the result of distorted reality contact or were
impulsive, unplanned acts evolving from extreme levels of situational stress, frustration, anger,
depression, or a combination of these.
The murder of children by their mothers is an unthinkable, abhorrent act that may prevent
many mental health and social services agency professionals from fully exploring the possibil-
ity of filicide by their women clients. Though clinicians routinely inquire about suicidal thoughts
and plans, questions regarding a mother’s homicidal ideation toward her children are rarely
raised. Recently, Resnick (1996) suggested that the clinician always ask, “What are your plans
for the children?” when a mother presents with suicidal thoughts.
Due to its low occurrence, accurate prediction of filicide is unlikely, although clinicians
and social services agencies can identify a number of factors that appear to suggest that a
woman is at risk for aggression against her children. The consistency of characteristics across
these English-speaking countries suggests the pattern of a nonaddicted, married, late 20’s,
low-income, mentally ill, new or recent mother of low-average intellect who, acting alone and
without weapons, kills only one of her children, likely of preschool age. These results are also
consistent with other research (Sammons, 1987) indicating that 75% of filicidal parents had
displayed psychiatric symptoms prior to their child’s death and that 40% had been seen by a
psychiatrist shortly prior to the crime.
The relatively high proportion of women evaluated as likely insane at the time of the
offense indicates that this and similar psycholegal issues are salient in this type of crime as had
been suggested by previous infanticide laws (Iffy & Jakobovitz, 1992). The finding of insanity
in 20% of this study’s cases, 27% in d’Orban’s (1979) study, and 15% in Bourget’s and Brad-
ford’s (1990) sample is significantly higher than the rate of .1% found in other criminal cases in
which the insanity defense is raised (Turner & Ornstein, 1983).
Treatment issues in these cases are complex and difficult. Due to the severity of the crime,
posttrial incarceration or mandatory psychiatric hospitalization results in these women being
treated within institutions rather than community-based programs, complicating issues of fam-
ily reintegration following conviction. Although the women had residual psychotic symptoms,
all displayed significant remorse and depression. Although filicidal women clearly need clini-
cal services, this study also identified a group of additional victims. Seventy-eight percent of
multichild families (24% in d’Orban’s 1979 study) had sibling survivors who will likely require
treatment for serious problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder or major depression. Pub-
lished research on sibling survivors of filicidal parents, however, is nonexistent.
The relative infrequency of filicide by women is socially fortunate but a continuing source
of difficulty in studying this population. Despite the consistency of this study with samples
from other countries, clinical and forensic decisions drawn from these data should be made
cautiously. Replications with larger, multistate and multinational samples are clearly needed.
REFERENCES
Adelson, L. (1961). Slaughter of the innocent: A study of forty-six homicides in which the victims were
children. New England Journal of Medicine, 264, 1345–1349.
Bourget, D., & Labelle, A. (1992). Homicide, infanticide, and filicide. Psychiatric Clinics of North
America, 15(3), 661–673.
Bourget, D., & Bradford, J.M.W. (1990). Homicidal parents. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 35,
233–237.
Briggs, C.M., & Cutright, P. (1994). Structural and cultural determinants of child homicide: A cross-
national analysis. Violence and Victims, 9(1), 3–16.
Campion, J.F., Cravens, J.M., & Covan, F. (1988). A study of filicidal men. American Journal of
Psychiatry, 145(9), 1141–1144.
Dawson, J.M., & Langan, P.A. (1994). Murder in families. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report,
July 1994. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
d’Orban, P. (1979). Women who kill their children. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 560–571.
Iffy, L., & Jakobovitz, A. (1992). Infanticide: New medical considerations. Medicine and Law, 11(3–4),
269–274.
Maguire, K., Pastore, A., & Flanagan, T. (Eds.). (1993). Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics—
1992. Washington, D.C.: US Department of Justice.
Meadow, R. (1980). Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 55, 731–732.
Melton, G., Petrila, J., Poythress, N., & Slobogin, C. (1987). Psychological evaluations for the
courts: A handbook for mental health professionals and lawyers. New York: Guilford Press.
Peters, J.F. (1980). The Shirishana of the Yanomami: A demographic study. Social Biology, 27(4),
272–285.
Resnick, P.J. (1969). Child murder by parents: A psychiatric review of filicide. American Journal of
Psychiatry, 126(3), 325–334.
Resnick, P.J. (1970). Murder of the newborn: A psychiatric review of neonaticide. American Journal of
Psychiatry, 126(10), 1414–1420.
Resnick, P.J. (1996, June). Clinical prediction of violent behavior. Paper presented at Hall Psychiatric
Institute, Columbia, SC.
Sammons, R.A., (1987, October). Psychotic mothers who kill their children. Paper presented at the 13th
Semiannual Forensic Symposium of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy, Charlottes-
ville, VA.
Scott, P.D. (1973). Parents who kill their children. Medicine, Science, and the Law, 13(3), 120–127.
Schreier, H.A., & Libow, J.A. (1993). Hurting for love: Munchausen syndrome by proxy. New York:
Guilford Press.
Turner, H., & Ornstein, N. (1983). Distinguishing the wicked from the mentally ill. 3 Cal Law 42.

Cross National Comparison of Maternal Filicide

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cross National Comparison of Maternal Filicide

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Maternal Filicide: A Cross-National Comparison

Geoffrey R. McKee and Steven J. Shea

The present study is a review of 20 adult women charged with murdering

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 54(5), 679–687 (1998)

In an effort to improve classification, Bourget and Bradford (1990) recently proposed a

Offense and Forensic Characteristics

Table 1. Comparison of Present Sample a to Samples of Resnick b (1969), d’Orban c (1979),

McKee & Shea Resnick d’Orban Bourget & Bradford

Pathological filicide 50.0 70.3 27.0 23.0

Characteristic McKee & Shea Resnick d’Orban Bourget & Bradford

Age (years) 29.3 31.5 24.6 27.3

You might also like