Summary
This book examines child homicide from all angles including historical, cultural, psychological, and legal. Topics covered include: motivations; alternative; SID syndrome; shaken baby syndrome; Munchausen by Proxy; postpartum depression; neonaticide by surrogate parents; prevention measures; as well as the differing circumstances involved in infanticide and filicide. It also investigates the behavior of the father - responsible in roughly 75 percent of these cases - whether aggressive, complicit, or merely absent.
Contents
1. Children: an endangered species throughout history. – 2. Neonaticide in theory and in history: who are the perpetrators? – 3. Motives for murder. – 4. Neonaticide and its alternatives. – 5. Neonaticide and the law. – 6. In transition: form one form of child homicide to another. – 7. Postpartum depression disorders. – 8. Infanticide and filicide by parents and their surrogates. – 9. Neonaticide, infanticide, filicide, and the law. – 10. Choice and reproduction: political and other arguments. – 11. Child homicide: preventive measures. – 12. Concluding thoughts and recommendations.