Drawing upon 28 court files of the District Court in Poznań and 30 post-mortem protocols--from the Department of Forensic Medicine at Poznań Medical Academy. This article tackles the issue of infanticide in the period from 1990 to 2000. The aim of this paper was to find answers to the following questions: what was the social background and mental state of female offenders? How was infanticide committed? In order to solve certain research problems, a document examination technique was employed to analyse the contents of the documents available. Female offenders were aged between 17 to 42 years. In the majority of cases (56.7%), perpetrators were occupationally active, single young women with a low level of education and having a working-class background. In the majority of cases (80%), active infanticide was committed. Most frequently, infanticide was committed by shutting a child into a tight space, and tamponade of throat and larynx. Passive infanticide was committed in 20% of cases, with infants left without care at the place of birth. No case of psychosis was determined in the examined material.