Infanticide and neonaticide: a review of 40 years of research literature on incidence and causes

Abstract

The prevailing public view on women who kill their babies is that they are either monsters or psychotic, or both. The psychiatric and legal communities recognize that the issue is not as simply dichotomous as this. Evidence suggests that there are important distinctions to be drawn between different types of baby deaths and that this may have implications for identification, punishment, and/or treatment of potential and actual perpetrators. This article reviews and summarizes research, incidence statistics, and judicial and clinical outcomes ranging over four decades of work and sets out various ways forward in the study and prevention of infant murder.