Homicide, Investigations & Forensic Science: Factors For Child Murder

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Introduction

The death of a child under any circumstances is tragic and provokes strong emotions. Children are at the highest risk of homicide in their first year of life, four times higher than other age groups. The notion of child homicide will be explored covering the nature of violence committed and the prevalence of this phenomenon. Risk factors including age, gender and possible reasoning parents kill their own children will be scrutinised. Macro and micro level sociology contextual and situational factors will be describe outlining the risk factors which contribute to filicide.

Thesis Statement

Infanticide and neonaticides account for the highest infant homicide rates. Maternal filicide and paternal filicide account for the highest perpetrator percentages of filicide. Children are killed by single acts of violence, neglect and the culmination of abuse. Psychosocial factors such as family stress, social structure disadvantage, psychiatric stress and psychiatric syndromes explain the reasoning filicide occurs.

Why do some parents, including stepparents, kill their children?
Are all children at the same level of risk of being killed by a parent?
Infanticide – killing of an infant less than a year old.
Babies less than 12 months old are at the highest risk of any other year age group, child or adult.
Neonaticides – killing of a baby less than a day old (highest rate).
Nature and theoretical explanations of homicide

Are all children at the same level of risk of being killed by a parent?

Neonaticide and infanticide accounts for the highest risk of filicide. Australian Institute of Criminology (2019) publication into child homicide in Australia showed that on average 25 children are killed each year by a parent or stepparent. The highest risk of victimisation is children under the age of one year old (Mouzos, J & Rushforth, C 2003).

Approximately 95,000 children are murdered globally each year (Stockl, Dekel, Morris- Gehring, Watts and Abrahams 2017). The tragic act of child homicide is differentiated according to the age of the victim. Children and infant homicide victims are aged between 0-16 years old. Neonaticide refers to cases of filicide within 24 hours from birth. Murdering offspring is classified as prolicide which includes infants and fetuses in-utero (Brookman 2005). Infanticide refers to cases of filicide less than one year old. Infanticide and neonaticide are often referred to as infant homicide. Children are at the highest risk of homicide in their first year of life, four times higher than other age groups (Brookman 2000). Child homicide is the most extreme act of violence, often at the hands of the people that are tasked to look after them.

Child homicide victims are at the highest risk of being killed by a parent within their first year of life. Australian had 238 incidents of filicide out of 284 deaths of children between 2000–01 and 2011–12 (Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) 2019). Child parent statistic show that 84 percent of child homicides were committed by female offenders, Mothers or step Mothers and decreases to and the remaining 30 percent are killed by the Fathers or step Father. Boys have a higher child homicide victim rate approximately sixty percent than girls proportions at 40% (Brookman 2005). 8 percent of child homicide victims are killed by strangers (Brookman 2005). 6 percent of children killed in England and Wales between 1995-2001 were by other children. National homicide data collected by Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council (2018, p. 9) confirms that 60.2% of child homicide case most common offence location is the family home. Child homicides that were filicides in 2005-2017 in Queensland statistics showed the family home was the location the offence was committed 79.7% of the time. Child homicide is the highest female accountability for all homicide categories in comparison to male offenders. Concepts in relation to the characteristics of victims and offenders are imperative in the development of criminological understanding in relation to child homicide.

Criminologists, psychologists, sociologists, law enforcement and the general public try to understand infanticide. Mental illness and social economic deprivation are contributing factors to the reasons a parent or step parents could kill their own child. Causes of infanticide can be maternal mental illness such as postpartum depression. Male mental illness caused by depression or rage, due to desertion in their mind of female partner due to the baby taking up the mother’s attention and time and murder suicide account for a large percentage of paternal filicide. Social economic factors such as single parenting, social deprivation, unstable violent relationships. Other reasoning would be an unwanted child, a young mother who may experience the stigma and financial issues due to poverty, unemployment and rurally (Shelton, Corey, Donaldson, & Dennison, 2011).

Criminologists Emile Durkheim social disorganisation and anomie theory drawn on theoretical perspectives, mainly social, to better explore other macro-level indicators. Control theory’s explain that weak and broken social bonds with members of conventional society will increase the likelihood of risk factors which contributes to filicide (Hirschi 1969). The inclusion of such variables increase our understanding of how contextual factors translate into differences in individual-level risks for children.

Understanding risk factors preceding child homicide incidents and the developing of copying mechanisms through counselling and education can reduce filicides. Women at risk of committing neonaticide are very difficult to identify as only 3 out of 11 cases have a psychiatric abnormality (D’Orban 1979). Post pardon depression and post pardon psychosis are often followed by suicide following the homicide. Substance abuse and mental health illness are often associated with child homicide offenders although difficult to determine if these factors were contributors to the homicide event. Unwanted pregnancy, illegitimate child and young Mothers can make the decision to not want the baby without a mental illness being present. Statistics have shown that women the month following childbirth is 25 times more at risk of becoming psychotic (Oates 1982). One in three new Mums have an episode of major depression in the year after giving birth. Alcohol and drug abuse antenatally and postnatally have been suggested to act in two ways in the reasoning for the infant homicide. Substance misuse has been suggested to act in two ways: first, drug-exposed newborns and infants are often described as irritable, with poor feeding and irregular sleeping patterns making them difficult to care for; secondly, substance misuse can impede people’s ability to evaluate their own behaviour and is correlated with aggression. A rare psychiatric disorder that can lead to infant homicide is Munchausen syndrome by proxy (D’Orban 1979).

Australian maternal hospitals statistics found that abusive mothers had emotional disturbances recorded on their maternity notes. We’re often under 20 years old and had been referred to social worker at the hospital. Hospital staff had concerns of mothering capacity and health visitors identified risk factors to child abuse (Oates 1982). Education, home visits and counselling are imperative to reduce the risk factors which contribute to infanticides.

Nature of the violence, reasons, risk factors and prevalence of this phenomenon

Pathological child murder is when the offender has an altered state of mind, a homicide-suicide, or when a parent or caregiver was suffering from a mental illness, depression, or acute psychosis (Alt & Wells, 2010; Bourrget & Bradford, 1990, as cited in Putkonen et al., 2011; Resnick, 1969). Unwanted child murder is when the mother denies or conceals the pregnancy prior to the murder, or neonaticide (Alt & Wells, 2010). Accidental child murder includes various forms of abuse and neglect such as shaken baby syndrome or battered child syndrome (Alt & Wells, 2010). Revenge or retaliation child murder involves revenge or retaliation against the spouse or girl/boyfriend and usually involves the father as the offender (Alt & Wells, 2010). Altruistic child murder occurs when the child has a disability, or the offender feels nobody will be available to love and care for the child (Alt & Wells, 2010). Non- accidental child murder would include sudden infant death syndrome or Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (Alt & Wells, 2010). A final classification motive is religion (Alt & Wells, 2010), which would include denial of medical intervention.

Mayhew (2007) claims that most child homicides are a result of frustration and lack of appropriate expectations of children, but others are calculated acts of violence. child murder and fatal cases of child abuse are undercounted (Herman- Giddens, Brown, Verbiest, Carlson, Hooten, Howell, & Butts, 1999). This underreporting is accounted for by poor documentation, infanticides reported as SIDS deaths, lack of death certificates, unfound corpses, and undocumented births due to pregnancy denial

Mayhew (2007) asserts that beatings are the primary cause of child murder, but mentions that neonaticide generally occurs from suffocation (being wrapped in a towel or placed in a box), abandonment, or drowning, especially if born into a toilet.

typical families with child abuse fatalities are poor, rural, and white (Jason & Andereck, 1983). impact of community-level factors and social stressors has not often been addressed in previous literature, and the inclusion of these ecological variables in an appropriate analysis may increase our understanding of how contextual factors translate into differences in individual-level.

Both the percent divorced and separated, as well as racial/ethnic heterogeneity, significantly increased the rate of child homicide. From a social disorganization theory standpoint, it has been suggested that individuals who reside in areas that are characterized by impoverished conditions and low income and education levels, among other issues, are more likely to experience deviance 20 percent of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) could be the incorrect cause of infant death, subdural haemorrhage could be the cause from abuse or an accident. NSPCC recommends all child deaths to be investigated.

Homicide event characteristics

Children are vulnerable due to small physical structure and fragility. Hands and feet of the offender are often the cause of the fatality. Newborns to infants are likely to be suffocated, drowned or shaken to death. Older children are commonly beaten and weapons can be involved, such as a sharp instrument (Crimmins, S., Langley, S., Brownstein, H.H. and Spunt, B.J. (1997). In 58% of cases where a parent committed the homicide, crying was the reason stated (Brewster 1998). Other reasons-used for child homicide were the euthanasia of a disabled child or terminally ill, physical abuse being an accident, neglect due to substance abuse and mental illness which murder suicide is the outcome.

Links to mental illness

Child homicide association to mental disorders psychiatric disorders environment and psychosocial stressors. In one off three cases female offenders who committed child homicide psychiatric disorders were identified (Falkov 1996).

Conclusion

The social situation of offenders such as poverty and social exclusion can lead to stress, depression and psychiatric disturbances which unfortunately can lead to committing homicide. Programs aimed at educating parents about appropriate parenting behaviours are one such measure that can be taken. These programs may educate parents about the vulnerability of children and their susceptibility to unintended injury, offer support services for young inexperienced mothers or teach parents non-violent coping skills (Scott 1995; Mouzos 2000). Other prevention strategies include:

the use of home visitation programs for the families of children who have been deemed to be ‘at risk’ of abuse; or
the use of child protection orders for children who have come to the attention of their jurisdictional community services department, and the careful monitoring of children under these orders.

Human services, law enforcement and other related agencies all play a role in the prevention of child homicide. The early recognition of warning signs of unsafe family situations would enable protective or supportive services to be provided (Lawrence & Fattore 2002, p. 142), thus minimising the risk of homicide, Children are not just at risk of homicide through fatal abuse incidents; family breakdown has also been identified as a precipitating factor in some filicides. The improvement of counselling and support services for separating parents may play an important role in reducing child homicide in these instances. Other family and friends may also play a vital role by raising the alarm if they notice a family breakdown affecting the parents’ mental health and by encouraging the parents to seek medical or other assistance in dealing with possible illnesses such as depression resulting from the separation.

References

Mouzos, J & Rushforth, C 2003 Last modified 5 March 2019 Australian Institute of Criminology 2019
Theoretical perspectives variables can be drawn from social disorganisation and anomie theories. (Tetzlaff-Bemiller 2013)

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