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Summary

People are horrified when parents kill their children, yet this act occurs daily on a global basis. Endangered Children: Neonaticide, Infanticide and Filicide provides a psychological, sociological, and criminological perspective of these acts, as the authors answer the many questions that arise from these crimes.

With an emphasis on neonaticide in terms of motives, alternatives, defenses offered, and penalties imposed, this book will be of interest to everyone from social workers to attorneys. A secondary area of focus is infanticide and filicide, again with attention paid to motives, defenses, and legal outcomes. Particular attention is paid to psychological/psychiatric defenses that have been offered and their impact as reported in law review articles and elsewhere.

Despite universal reprobation, neonaticide and infanticide have been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of intellectual complexity. This text will examine the mothers of the victims in terms of background and motives along with the role, if any, that mental illness plays in the death of their children.

What sets the stage for a parent of a newborn to abandon it to an almost certain death? What motives underlie such an act? Do the attitudes and laws regarding abortion have any relation to neonaticide?

These questions, as well as many others will be answered in societal, religious and legal terms. Professionals and the lay public alike need to understand why these incidents occur and what actions can be undertaken to reduce them in the future.