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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2002

Infanticidal ideas and infanticidal behavior in Indian women with severe postpartum psychiatric disorders.

Few studies have investigated maternal aggression toward infants among women with a severe mental illness that emerges in the postpartum period. In this prospective study of 50 Indian women admitted to a psychiatric hospital for severe mental illness occurring in the postpartum period, we examined the prevalence, pattern, and predictors of maternal aggression, infanticidal ideas, and infanticidal behavior. Nearly half (43%) of the mothers reported infanticidal ideas, 36% reported infanticidal behavior, and 34% reported both infanticidal ideas and behavior. Infanticidal ideas and behavior co-occurred frequently (r =.80). Infanticidal ideas were associated with depression in the mother, adverse maternal reaction to separation from the infant, and psychotic ideas toward the infant. Infanticidal behavior was associated with having a female infant, psychotic ideas toward the infant, and adverse maternal reaction to separation from the infant. Logistic regression analyses indicated that presence of depression and of psychotic ideas predicted infanticidal ideas, whereas presence of psychotic ideas toward the infant predicted infanticidal behavior.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

[Attempted infanticide with a happy ending. Report of infanticide in Tirol and Vorarlberg].

The paper presents an analysis of infanticides which happened during the last 20 years, investigated by the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Innsbruck. On the basis of some casuistries forensic and criminalistic aspects of infanticides will be discussed. Special attention is payed to two cases of "survived infanticides" with re-establishing of the relationship between mother and child.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

Infanticide and parental behavior in wild female house mice: effects of ovariectomy, adrenalectomy and administration of oxytocin and prostaglandin F2 alpha.

We have previously observed that about 60% of virgin, wild female house mice (Mus musculus), that were the offspring of wild mice trapped in Missouri, exhibited infanticide when a single 2-day-old pup was placed into each female's home cage. But, by the end of pregnancy, there was a significant increase (to 90%) in the proportion of wild female mice that exhibited infanticide. At parturition, infanticide was inhibited and parental behavior was induced in all females. In the present study we examined the influence of ovarian and adrenal hormones, as well as two hormones associated with pregnancy and parturition: oxytocin and prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF), in regulating infanticide and parental behavior in wild female house mice. The presence or absence of gonadal and adrenal hormones did not influence the frequency of infanticidal behavior in adult female mice. Subcutaneous injections of either oxytocin or PGF inhibited infanticide in previously infanticidal pregnant females 1 hr after injection, but only oxytocin served to also facilitate parental behavior (most PGF-treated females left the pup untouched). Oxytocin, but not PGF, was effective in inhibiting infanticide in previously infanticidal virgin females. These findings suggest that, by themselves, ovarian and adrenal hormones do not mediate the exhibition of infanticide by wild female mice, but the lack of response to PGF in virgin females suggests that endocrine changes during pregnancy (possibly changes in steroids) may modulate the inhibitory effects of PGF on infanticide.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗

PubMed1986

Social and hormonal factors influencing infanticide and its suppression in adult male Long-Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus).

In a series of six experiments, the experiential and hormonal factors influencing infanticide in Long-Evans hooded rats were examined. Males, but not females, purchased from a breeder as adults exhibited infanticide at high rates, whereas males reared in the laboratory until adulthood were less likely to be infanticidal. Sexual experience reduced the rate of infanticide in laboratory-reared males, and cohabitation with a female through pregnancy and lactation (including exposure to pups) inhibited infanticide in previously infanticidal males. Fourteen days of cohabitation with a pregnant female following copulation inhibited infanticide in males purchased from a breeder, but copulation without cohabitation and copulation followed by cohabitation with a nonpregnant (ovariectomized) female did not inhibit infanticide. Castration of laboratory-reared males in adulthood did not reduce their rate of infanticide, whereas testosterone implants increased the number of males exhibiting infanticide. The importance of hormonal and experiential factors for controlling infanticide in male rats is discussed.

Aggression↗

PubMed2004

Maternal infanticide associated with mental illness: prevention and the promise of saved lives.

OBJECTIVE: Although maternal infanticide is a rare event, a high proportion of cases occurs in the context of postpartum mental illness. The author reviews historical, legislative, and contemporary psychiatric perspectives on infanticide and discusses ways in which the psychiatric community can improve prevention of infanticide and promote appropriate treatment of mentally ill women who commit infanticide. METHOD: The case of Texas v. Andrea Yates, involving a mother with mental illness who drowned her five children, is used to illustrate society's complicated reactions to infanticide in the context of postpartum mental illness. RESULTS: In the United States, the complexity of the response to infanticide is demonstrated by the judicial system's reaction to such cases. Whereas England's Infanticide Law provides probation and mandates psychiatric treatment for mothers with mental illness who commit infanticide, "killer mothers" may face the death penalty in the United States. Contemporary neuroscientific findings support the position that a woman with postpartum psychosis who commits infanticide needs treatment rather than punishment and that appropriate treatment will deter her from killing again. Psychiatrists have a vital role in recognizing the signs and symptoms of peripartum psychiatric disorders, particularly postpartum psychosis, and in early identification of and intervention with at-risk mothers. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of formal DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for postpartum psychiatric disorders promotes disparate treatment under the law. The psychiatric community should develop guidelines for the treatment of postpartum disorders, foster sharing of knowledge between psychiatry and the law, and do more to enlighten society about the effects of mental illness on thought and behavior so that decisions about the treatment and punishment of mentally ill persons will not be left exclusively in the hands of the judicial system.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2005

Infanticide: contrasting views.

BACKGROUND: The subject of infanticide is met with complex reactions. Paradoxically, the very same society that practices gender selection may also prosecute a mother for killing an infant. The author reviews historical, cultural, and political views on infanticide. OBJECTIVE: Using the case of Andrea Yates, the author illustrates the outcome of an infanticide case in American Judicial System in which a floridly psychotic mother serves a life in prison. This work explores contemporary worldwide experiences of infanticide and investigates culture specific attitudes towards causes, facilitation, and punishment of this tragic cause of infant mortality. The work illustrates the intricate relationship between a society's construction of parenthood and mothering, and its experience of infanticide. RESULTS: Infanticide is deeply embedded in, and responsive to the societies in which it occurs. Causes vary from poverty to stigma, dowry and insanity. The worldwide experience of infant murder reaches from facilitation of gender determination in China and Asia to lethal execution of mothers as perpetrators in the United States. CONCLUSION: Infanticide must be viewed against the political, cultural, social and legal backgrounds of societies that treat women with disregard. It is a reflection of social and cultural norms governing motherhood, a constant that links these seemingly disparate acts. The overall association of infanticide with crime, postpartum illness, population and sex selection speaks to unjust discrimination against women and children. We as a world society can do a far better job of protecting motherhood.

Capital Punishment↗

PubMed1993

Genetic mediation of infanticide and parental behavior in male and female domestic and wild stock house mice.

Infanticide is a reproductive strategy found in many mammals, especially rodents. The proportion of male and female house mice (Mus domesticus) that are either infanticidal or noninfanticidal is strain specific and varies widely from stock to stock. Male house mice also show strain-specific variation in the behavioral mechanisms that inhibit infanticidal individuals from killing their own offspring. The adult offspring generated from reciprocally crossed CF-1 and Wild stock house mice were tested for their behavior toward newborn pups. In male CF-1 x Wild hybrids, the proportion of infanticidal and noninfanticidal males matched with their maternal phenotype, whereas female CF-1 x Wild hybrids exhibited a proportion of behaviors typical of the CF-1 phenotype, regardless of their mother's genotype. Our results suggest three conclusions: first, that infanticide is a highly labile and heritable behavior in both sexes; second, that there is a sex difference in the genetic substrate that regulates the inheritance of infanticidal behavior; and third, that selection pressures in male mice may operate independently on the mechanisms that promote spontaneous infanticidal behavior versus the mechanisms that inhibit infanticide.

Agonistic Behavior↗

PubMed1985

Time-contingent change in infanticide and parental behavior induced by ejaculation in male mice.

About 50% of sexually-naive male CF-1 mice (Mus musculus) commit infanticide (kill young). But, 80-90% of male mice commit infanticide between 1-4 days after mating. Between 12 and 50 days after mating infanticide is inhibited and most males (80-100%) behave parentally toward young (they build a nest, retrieve and groom the young, and hover over the young to keep them warm). Beginning at 60 days after mating, infanticide is again facilitated and parental behavior is inhibited (70-80% of males commit infanticide). The facilitation and inhibition of infanticide as a function of time after mating is mediated by the act of ejaculating rather than by mounting and intromitting during mating or by cohabiting with a female either before or after mating. The experience of committing infanticide either prior to mating or within the first 4 days after mating does not influence the facilitation of parental behavior that occurs 12 days after mating. But, repeated contact with young after males become parental serves to maintain parental behavior for an extended period of time. The age of the young (newborn-20 days old) utilized as stimulus animals does not influence these time-dependent changes in the behavior of male mice after ejaculation. This phenomenon is unique in that a response (infanticide) to a novel stimulus (young) is facilitated, then inhibited, and then facilitated again as a function of time between an event (ejaculation) and exposure to the novel stimulus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adaptation, Biological↗

PubMed1986

Inhibition of infanticide after mating by wild male house mice.

The effect of mating on the behavior of male house mice (Mus musculus) toward young has been examined in numerous domestic stocks of mice, and the somewhat contradictory results led us to examine the effects of mating on the behavior of wild male mice toward young. The wild mice were the F1-F4 offspring of mice trapped in Missouri. Virtually all wild males exhibit infanticide prior to mating, but virrually all wild males were inhibited from exhibiting infanticide 3 weeks after mating whether they were placed into the cage of their former mate and her litter or into the cage of an unfamiliar female and her litter, similar to the effect of mating on the behavior of CF-1 male mice toward young. In contrast, wild males that had exhibited infanticide prior to mating were inhibited from exhibiting infanticide 3 weeks after mating when placed with their former mates and their 2-day-old young but not when placed with unfamiliar females and their 2-day-old young. When wild males were tested for their behavior toward young using the procedure of placing a single pup into each male's home cage, mating did not result in an inhibition of infanticide (about 90% of the males exhibited infanticide). Cohabitation with a female without mating also did not influence the behavior of wild males toward young. Wild males that exhibited infanticide when placed with a lactating female produced their own young more rapidly than did noninfanticidal males, thus providing further support for the hypothesis that under some conditions, infanticide can be an adaptive trait.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adaptation, Biological↗

PubMed2004

Infanticide and infant defence by males--modelling the conditions in primate multi-male groups.

Infanticide by primate males was considered rare if groups contain more than one adult male because, owing to lower paternity certainty, a male should be less likely to benefit from infanticide. Guided by recent evidence for strong variation of infanticide in primate multi-male groups, we modelled the conditions for when infanticide should occur for a group with a resident and an immigrant male. Setting the parameters (e.g. infant mortality, reduction of interbirth interval, life-time reproductive success, genetic representation) to fit the conditions most commonly found in nature, we develop a game-theoretic model to explore the influence of age and dominance on the occurrence of infanticide and infant defence. Male age strongly impacts the likelihood of an attack which is modified by the father's defence. If the new male is dominant he is likely to attack under most circumstances whereas a subordinate male will only attack if the father does not defend. These model scenarios fit the conditions under which infanticide is known to occur in primate multi-male groups and offer an explanation why infanticide is common in some multi-male groups and rare in others. Overall, the benefits for infanticidal males are strongly governed by a reduced interbirth interval while advantages via improved genetic representation in the gene pool contribute but a minor fraction.

Animals↗

PubMed2000

Maternal infanticides in Fiji.

OBJECTIVE: This essay contributes to the cross-cultural literature on childhood homicides by examining 16 infanticidal homicides that occurred in Fiji over an 11-year period. The results are compared with infanticide studies conducted in other societies. METHOD: Official police data recorded in a Homicide and Manslaughter register are analyzed. These are supplemented by newspaper reports of infanticides and semi-structured interviews conducted with key criminal justice and medical personnel intimately associated with infanticide cases. RESULTS: The findings show that most infanticide defendants were young, poor, Fijian, with little formal education, living with nonparental kin at the time of the crime. The infanticides were precipitated by unwanted pregnancies brought on by nonmarital and extramarital sex. Pregnancy is carried to full gestation without knowledge of family, friends and neighbors of offenders and the infant is killed immediately following birth. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings demonstrate that the patterns of maternal infant killings in Fiji are congruous in many significant ways with those in advanced industrialized societies. It is concluded that additional research in non-Western, nonindustrialized nations is imperative to contribute to the development of sound conclusions about, and remedies for infanticide.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1985

Infanticide, physicians, and the law: the "Baby Doe" amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

Infanticide, like most other species of homicide, is probably coeval with the human race itself. In modern Western civilization, what were formerly the most powerful incentives to infanticide have virtually disappeared. As with other social problems that affluence has seemed to solve, however, infanticide has reappeared in a new form that seems to have been made possible by affluence itself. This "new infanticide" occurs in a place whose very existence is the result of a tremendously wealthy society's devotion to its most vulnerable and least "useful" members. The modern neonatal intensive care unit, which treats, and often saves, extremely ill newborn children, who during most of history would surely have died, has proven to be a setting where many of the age-old incentives for infanticide have begun to operate again. The "new infanticide" consists of withholding food or needed medical treatment from selected infants who suffer from one or more serious, though treatable, medical problems. The national government has now enacted legislation designed to curtail the practice of infanticide by the medical profession. This paper traces the genesis of that legislation, explores the problem to which it is addressed, and evaluates its prospects for success.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗

PubMed2003

Behavioral and endocrine dynamics associated with infanticide in a black and white colobus monkey (Colobus guereza).

Infanticide has been observed in several colobines, but only one infanticide has previously been documented for black and white colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza). This report describes an infanticide observed in Kibale National Park, Uganda, in the summer of 2001. An adult male from a neighboring group attacked and killed a young infant whose mother subsequently remained in her own group and was observed mating 10 days later. She engaged in two mating periods of several days each, separated by approximately 1 month, during which she copulated frequently with the dominant male within her group. Urinary estrogen (EC) and progesterone metabolite (PdG) excretion patterns demonstrated that the female resumed ovarian cycling soon after the infanticide. Because the infanticidal male did not attempt to mate with the victim's mother, his actions were not consistent with the predictions of the sexual-selection hypothesis. We speculate that infanticide associated with intergroup aggression may help secure access to high-quality resources for the infanticidal male's group.

Aggression↗

PubMed1986

Infanticide by virgin CF-1 and wild male house mice (Mus musculus): effects of age, prolonged isolation, and testing procedure.

The frequency of infanticide by juvenile, young-adult, and adult male house mice (Mus musculus) was compared in CF-1 albino mice and the F1-F4 male offspring of wild mice trapped in Missouri. When tested in their home cages for their behavior toward a single 2-day-old pup after being individually housed for 5 days, juvenile CF-1 and wild males were equally likely to exhibit infanticide (about 35%). But, adult wild males were significantly more likely to exhibit infanticide (about 90%) than were adult CF-1 males (about 45%). We propose that differences in exposure to testosterone during fetal life may contribute to the difference in the incidence of infanticide between CF-1 and wild males. Prolonged isolation (45 days) significantly reduced the proportion of wild male mice that exhibited infanticide when the males were tested in their home cages, but not when the males were tested by being placed into the cage of lactating females and their 2-day-old young. Virtually all adult wild males exhibited infanticide when they were tested in their home cages (with either a 2-day-old or 7-day-old pup) or when they were placed into the cages of lactating wild female mice and their 2-day-old young. But, when adult wild males were placed with lactating wild females on Day 7 postpartum, the females attacked the males and most males were prevented from exhibiting infanticide.

Aging↗

PubMed2002

New cases of inter-community infanticide by male chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda.

Infanticide by males has been recorded in four chimpanzee populations, including that in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Some infanticidal attacks occur during inter-community aggression. The sexual selection hypothesis does not easily explain these attacks because they may not directly increase male mating opportunities. However, females in the attackers' community may benefit by expanding their foraging ranges and thereby improving their reproductive success; thus infanticide may increase male reproductive success indirectly. We report two new cases of infanticide by male chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park. Like two previous cases, these occurred during a boundary patrol and were almost certainly between-community infanticides. The patrolling males attacked despite the proximity of males from the victims' presumed community. This probably explains why, unlike the earlier cases, they did not completely cannibalize their victims. Such attacks seem to be relatively common at Ngogo and infanticide may be an important source of infant mortality in neighboring communities. Our observations cannot resolve questions about the sexual selection hypothesis. However, they are consistent with the range expansion hypothesis: the infanticides occurred during a period of frequent encounters between communities associated with a mast fruiting event, and Ngogo community members greatly increased their use of areas near the attack site during another mast fruiting event one year later. Our observations contribute to growing evidence that lethal intergroup aggression is a common characteristic of wild chimpanzee populations.

Aggression↗

PubMed1985

The influence of reproductive state on infanticide by wild female house mice (Mus musculus).

The majority of female mice (Mus musculus) from laboratory stocks are spontaneously parental. In contrast, the majority of adult wild female house mice exhibit infanticide (the killing of preweanling young), but the frequency with which infanticide is observed varies as a function of age and reproductive state. Prepubertal females were less likely to exhibit infanticide (39%) than were adult virgin females (61%). The frequency of infanticide increased during pregnancy, with over 90% of females exhibiting infanticide just before parturition. But, after parturition, previously infanticidal females cared for their own litters. When lactating female mice were tested after two days of separation from their own nursing young for their behavior toward a novel newborn pup on either the tenth or twenty-fifth day after parturition, the proportion of the females that exhibited infanticide was not significantly different from that of adult virgin females (about 60%). After only two hours of separation from their own nursing young on the tenth day after parturition, however, all females continued to exhibit parental behavior toward a novel pup.

Aggression↗

PubMed1989

Fetal, hormonal and experiential factors influencing the mating-induced regulation of infanticide in male house mice.

When a male house mouse encounters a neonate he either attempts to kill it or he does not harm it. An unusual aspect of his response is that adaptive, time-dependent changes in behavior toward pups result from a unique stimulus-response system triggered specifically by ejaculation. In virgin male CF-1 mice, about 50% of all males are spontaneously infanticidal when they encounter a pup while the other 50% are typically "parental." The stimulus of ejaculation causes virtually all males to kill pups; however, by the time offspring are born three weeks after mating, infanticide is inhibited and almost all males now behave parentally toward pups. Our experiments examine fetal, experiential, and hormonal factors influencing the changes in infanticidal and parental behavior that occur in male mice as a result of mating. Males who developed in utero between two female fetuses, and were thus exposed to relatively low testosterone concentrations during fetal development, were significantly more likely to exhibit infanticide--both before and after mating--than were males who developed between two male fetuses. Concurrent exposure to testosterone appears required in order for naive males to exhibit infanticide and for spontaneously parental males to become infanticidal after ejaculation. In contrast, neither testosterone nor pituitary hormones appeared responsible for the timed inhibition of infanticide occurring by three weeks after mating, since castrated and hypophysectomized males showed a response pattern similar to intact males. The mating-induced inhibition phenomenon appears to be a neurally timed and mediated response that operates independently from pituitary hormone secretions or changes in gonadal hormones resulting from mating.

Aggression↗

PubMed1980

Infanticide and fertility among Eskimos: a computer simulation.

Until recently, certain Eskimo groups were reported to practice female infanticide in the belief that the time spent suckling a girl would delay the mother's next opportunity to bear a son, males being preferred to females because of their future role as providers in a hunting economy. From sex ratios in census data, rates of female infanticide of up to 66% for some groups have been inferred, leading some ethnographers to conclude that these groups were headed for extinction. Eskimo beliefs regarding the effects of infanticide on fertility, however, are in accord with the results of research on the relation of fertility and lactation: The cessation of lactation following infanticide would significantly shorten the expected interval until the next birth. Given this fact and available field data regarding the parameters of Eskimo population growth, the present computer simulation indicates that Eskimo populations could sustain a rate of 30% female infanticide and still survive. Higher reported rates are explained as the combined result of female infanticide plus the tendency of ethnographers to overestimate the ages of juvenile females relative to juvenile males.

Computers↗