What Separates Parents Who Kill?

Americans hear about all sorts of murders on the news almost every day. It is not strange for us. However, murder of two young children by their own mother is astounding news. In the case of Susan Smith, no matter how she claims she was not in her right mind that night she murdered her children, she is definitely not a victim. There are many alternatives to relieving your duty as a mother. Murder should not be on top of a mother’s list even if she was mentally ill.

The same psychiatrist, Johnathan H. Pincus examined 14 other death row inmates who had murdered when they were under the age of 18 and realized that they all had the same factors of neurologic damage, abuse, and paranoid thinking (Pincus, 29). A study done by Lisa Marshall and David Cooke shows the differences between the childhoods of psychopath criminals and non-psychopath criminals. They used the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse to show how much the environment your surrounded with as a child can affect your adult life. Not only did they study the results of familial childhood factors such as neglect, physical abuse, and psychological abuse but they also looked into societal factors such as negative school experience and negative school performance. Results showed that “Inadequate or incompetent parenting leads to insecure attachment bonding that forecasts low levels of empathy, compliance, cooperation and self control.” (Lykken,199). The most obvious differences in the childhoods of psychopath criminals and non-psychopath criminals were in parental discipline, parental neglect, and negative school performance. (Marshall and Cooke, The Childhood experiences of psychopaths). Another environmental factor that should

In some ethical and legal respects a pregnant woman and her fetus can be considered separate. Both the woman and the fetus are ordinarily affected by the well-being of one another for as long as each of them live. The ethical and legal issues are challenged deeply in cases where the well-being of the fetus and the mother appear to be in conflict. Our society struggles with identifying cases where the pregnant woman’s interests and/or behaviors might put her fetus at risk. Criminal and/or civil commitments should be used to bar pregnant women from exposing their fetuses to risk.

The central issue upon which the Supreme Court based their decision was in regard to the best interests of the child. They looked closely at the nature v. nurture argument, ruling that her psychological parents, the Racine’s, were capable of providing a healthier environment than her biological mother, Mrs. Woods. When looking at this case from a solely legal perspective, it is clear that the Court made the correct choice, considering Mrs. Woods’ ongoing battle with substance abuse coupled with her abusive relationship. However, this case, as with many could not be looked at simply from a legal perspective. Complex cultural aspects are embedded within the case that had to be considered in order to properly gauge the decisions and the effects of that decision. In the past, children were automatically placed with their biological parents or relatives, which, was viewed as standard procedure within the legal framework. Societal norms have progressed in such a way that allow for a more activist

British psychologist John Bowlby (1952) had suggested that in infanthood, the relationship of the infant and the mother have a crucial impact on their lives, and deprivation of maternal care will increase the risk of mental disorders and even juvenile delinquency. He had “believed… [what] is essential for mental health is that the infant and young child should experience a warm,

Most parents and other caregivers do not intend to hurt their children, but abuse is defined by the effect on the child, not the motivation of the parents or caregiver.Tens of thousands of children each year are traumatized by physical, sexual, and emotional abusers or by caregivers who neglect them.Child abuse as common as it is shocking. Most of us can’t imagine what would make an adult use violence against a child, and the worse the behavior is, the more unimaginable it seems. But the incidence of parents and other caregivers consciously, even willfully, committing acts that harm the very children they’re supposed to be nurturing is a sad fact of human society that cuts

This documentary specifies that there is no easy answer to what is going on inside the mind of killers, and we cannot simply place these individuals into “neat diagnostic boxes” that explain why their actions turned so violent. However, the investigators present research studying different avenues regarding ways to “predict” the likelihood that an individual will commit violent crime, will maintaining that no method is perfect. Throughout the presentation, viewers are offered mountains of research highlighting a mix of nature and nurture ranging from neurologists from Harvard studying brain patterns affected by genetics, to psychologists studying maternal care and attachment during infancy.

For centuries, the world has been plagued with murderous criminals who find joy in the sick torture and killing of people they claim as victims. These offenders are often psychotic and sociopathic, feeling no guilt during or after the murder of their victims. As the years have progressed, studies have shown more clear information that may lead to determining why a person would choose to kill, why they would choose the specific victim that they do, and if their psychological problems relate back to their childhood. Many theories claim that the upbringing of the child may cause their psychological problems, while other theories state that it is a work of mother nature.

This article highlights an evaluation conducted used information from CDC’s pregnancy Mortality Surveillance process. Threat reasons for being pregnant-associated homicide have been examined. (being pregnant-associated homicide was once outlined as a loss of life for the period of or inside one 12 months of being pregnant). Homicide was found to be a main intent of pregnancy-associated injury deaths amongst females from 1991–1999. The being pregnant-associated murder ratio used to be 1.7 per one hundred,000 live births. Chance causes included age more youthful than two decades, Black race, and late or no prenatal care

Filicide can be defined as the act of murdering one’s own child or children; acts of filicide are normally projected loudly in media. There are cases of filicide in which the defense of the accused, plead as not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder referred to as NCRMD. In order to submit the verdict of NCRMD, the criminal act must have been committed at a time in which the accused had already been previously diagnosed with a mental disorder; therefore, resulting in the prevention of understanding the act and its quality. Similarly, in the R. v. Schoenborn case, Schoenborn sought for defence of NCRMD while being charged with first-degree murder for his three children. He had been attempting to fix his relationship with his life partner but was rejected; thereafter, he brutally murdered their children in his partner’s trailer home in Merritt, British Columbia. He was found NCRMD in April 2008 and was held at the psychiatric hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia. Recently, he has been granted day passes to be in the community outside of the psychiatric facility. There are many cases like this one, where different factors lead to the act of filicide. These factors associated to filicide may be situational, including separation, substance abuse and various others. There are numerous filicide cases in which NCRMD is included; therefore, making it evident that mental health is a significant risk factor. It is essential that one assesses what

After all is said, both the acts of child abuse and child abuse parricide are both wrong; however, the difference is that child abuse will never be justified no matter what excuse there is. It causes physical, mental, psychological, and emotional damage. A child should never have to go through with what over 2 million abused children go through every day and then get punished harshly for finding a way out or defending themselves. Which leads to the conclusion that even though murder is never the most effective choice, in most cases, child abuse parricide is

This essay explores postpartum depression and crime. Form intensive research, readers should be able to educate themselves on the actual disorder itself, and how it is linked to crime. In fact, more than half of the cases that involve infant fatality in the United States, have resulted from unawareness of mental illness’s such as PPD. Discussed in the essay, is the Andrea Yates cases, which involve a Houston, Texas mother, suffering from postpartum psychosis. However, the outcome of Yates cases, resulted in numerous studies involving women with PPD. However, the main focus of the essay is to express the importance of the disorder, and how crime can be prevented if pregnant mother seek treatment. As specified throughout the essay, PPD is a serious mental disorder.

In 2001, Andrea Yates, a Texas mother, was accused of drowning her five children, (aged seven, five, three, two, and six months) in her bathtub. The idea of a mother drowning all of her children puzzled the nation. Her attorney argued that it was Andrea Yates' untreated postpartum depression, which evolved into postpartum psychosis that caused her horrific actions (1) . He also argued that Andrea Yates suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her fourth child, and that she attempted suicide twice for this very disorder ((1)). What is postpartum depression, and how can it cause a mother to harm her very own children, altering her behavior towards her children in a negative way? One in ten women

It is becoming more recognized and well- known around the world that the mental well-being of one’s parents largely affects the development and or the emotional and mental states of oneself. Research is becoming much more widespread and researchers could make important recommendations on how to intervene in the lives of children with parents suffering from mental illness to best prevent harm to their health and well-being as they grow. It has been found that the most common mental illnesses among people of child-bearing age are anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Most policy however deals with the care of children whose parents must be hospitalized due to their conditions. Much of the current research though aims to show that even those which do not require extreme medical intervention can impact children physically, emotionally, socially, cognitively, etcetera.

In March 2011, Emma Mei Tran was found dead in her Burnside family home, killed by the hands of her son, Wei Li. On the day of the fatal incident, Li had strangled his mother to death in an act he claimed as “self-defence.” Ms Tran became abusive following the abandoning of Li’s father, and Li claimed that she became exceptionally angry and violent, which got so extreme it ultimately resulted in daily beatings (1). Ms Tran was seemingly “obsessed” with her son’s academic achievements, and if he was unsuccessful in receiving a straight A, she would become abusive.