Child Murder Research Articles

The Murder of a Newborn Child by a Mother: a Terminological Aspect

The Murder of a Newborn Child by a Mother: a Terminological Aspect

Reasons for the Murder of a Newborn Child by a Mother and Criminal Liability for it

Reasons for the Murder of a Newborn Child by a Mother and Criminal Liability for it

Child abuse and neglect-related murders in South Africa: a comparison of two national surveys in 2009 and 2017

Population-based statistics on deaths from child abuse and neglect are only routinely available in countries that have reliable national statistics on child murder. For low-income and middle-income countries, relatively little is known about prevalence trends of child murder. South Africa is an exception, having conducted dedicated national studies on child murders for 2009 and 2017 to provide data on child murders overall and on child abuse and neglect-related murders. We aimed to compare child abuse and neglect-related murders in South Africa across two surveys to determine any change between 2009 and 2017. We conducted two retrospective national mortuary-based surveys on murder of children aged 0-17 years for 2009 and 2017 from a proportionate random sample of medico-legal laboratories in South Africa. A sampling frame of medico-legal laboratories for each study year was prepared with stratification by medico-legal laboratory size. A minimum of 2 years after the crime was allowed before data collection to enable progression of the investigation process. Child abuse and neglect-related murders were identified using both medico-legal laboratory post-mortem autopsy reports and police data. To identify a child abuse and neglect-related murder, we primarily used the framework of abuse happening within the context of responsibility of care arrangements but broadened this to include all perpetrators and abuse identified from the data. We stratified age into 0-4, 5-9, 10-14, and 15-17 years and further stratified children younger than 5 years into early neonates (newborns killed within 6 days of birth), 7 days to 11 months, and 1-4 years. We calculated incidence rate ratios (IRR) with 95% CIs to compare rates between 2009 and 2017. An estimated 458 (95% CI 377-539) children in 2009 and 213 (179-247) children in 2017 were murdered in circumstances of child abuse and neglect. The percentage of all child murders that were child abuse and neglect-related declined from 2009 to 2017 (458 [45·0%] of 1018 in 2009 vs 213 [25·0%] of 851 in 2017), with the overall age-standardised rate decreasing from 2·6 to 1·1 per 100 000 children aged 0-17 years (IRR 0·43 [95% CI 0·35-0·54]). Girls represented 276 (60·3%) of 458 murders in 2009, which declined to 96 (45·1%) of 213 murders in 2017, and boys represented 178 (38·9%) of 458 murders in 2009 and 109 (51·4%) of 213 murders in 2017. The decrease was statistically significant for girls in the 0-4 year (IRR 0·33 [0·22-0·49]) and 5-9 year (0·33 [0·15-0·73]) age groups and for boys in the 0-4 year age group (0·49 [0·33-0·71]). Among early neonates (within 6 days of birth), the decrease in child abuse and neglect-related murders was more pronounced among girls than among boys (IRR 0·33 [95% CI 0·19-0·56] vs 0·46 [0·28-0·77]). Child abuse and neglect-related murders are common in South Africa but our study shows that they can be reduced. The high rate of these murders points to the need to continue research and monitoring to inform priority targeted interventions and to better understand the impact of child support policies. Ford Foundation and South African Medical Research Council.

Intentional child and adolescent homicides in Milan (Italy): A 30-year interdisciplinary study

This study aims to discuss the forensic and criminological implications of child homicides in the territory of Milan, Italy. The authors present a retrospective study on all the cases of child and adolescent homicides, that were observed at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Milan (Italy) in the last 30 years (from January 1991 to December 2020). A total of 46 child homicides were collected, focusing on the sociological features, by highlighting peculiar cases, risk factors, potential changing social trends, and comparing our cases with the current literature. The analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship (p < 0.05) for male adolescents and indicated that adolescent homicides were more frequently perpetrated in extrafamilial contexts. In contrast, neonaticides and infanticides were mainly committed at home. Furthermore, the Fisher’s Exact test revealed that child murders were mainly committed by immigrants in the Milan district after 2005 (p < 0.05). The two main causes of death were due to sharp and firearm injuries. While the relationship between homicide clusters and homicides committed by sharp objects was not significant, adolescent homicides were mainly committed using firearms (p < 0.05). The present study may help to identify risk factors for homicides against child and adolescent. Consequently, policies that identify, prevent, and minimize this extreme violence should be designed to interrupt the vicious circle of such dreadful murderous events. Child and adolescent homicides deserve additional focus and better education for healthcare professionals and further research should be carried out to develop therapeutic and caring strategies.

It is Not Too Late for Reconciliation Between Israel and Palestine, Even in the Darkest Hour

The conflict in Gaza and Israel that ignited on October 7, 2023 signals a catastrophic breakdown in the possibility of ethical dialogue in the region. The actions on both sides have revealed a dissolution of ethical restraints, with unimaginably cruel attacks on civilians, murder of children, destruction of health facilities, and denial of basic needs such as water, food, and shelter. There is a need both to understand the nature of the ethical singularity represented by this conflict and what, if any, options are available to allow the reconstruction of communication between the warring parties. This article seeks to address these tasks by analysing the conflict as inherently an ethical one, in the sense that it exposes a rupture in the fabric of communicative relationships that has evolved systematically out of the deep cultural structures from which all protagonists have emerged. Drawing on the work of Levinas, Habermas, Arendt, and others, and referring to the specific circumstances in the region, it examines the ethical sources of the crisis and tries to identify conditions for its resolution. The possibility of reconciliation—that is, of refiguring relationships to open up a space for dialogue to create pathways to heal the ruptures—is examined. The dark legacy of the Holocaust is identified as an abiding cultural vulnerability for both societies. It is concluded, however, that the rich history of partnerships and collaborations between Jews and Palestinians provides a robust infrastructure on the basis of which a sustainable peace might be built, providing a much-needed source of hope.

Civic factions, denied conversions and the first European narrative of Jewish infanticide: Praejectus of Clermont’s Deeds of Austremonius (c.650/75)

Abstract This is the first dedicated study of the long-overlooked Gesta (‘deeds’) of Austremonius of Clermont, now understood to be a seventh-century composition. Its central focus is the Gesta’s remarkable anti-Jewish emphases, which reinvent this hitherto obscure missionary as an early apostle martyred by Jews. Building upon earlier research on civic factionalism in Merovingian Clermont, it situates this reinvention within the city’s competitive political environment, and its fraught recent history of Christian-Jewish confrontation. It further explores the long-term significance of the Gesta’s portrayal of Clermont’s Jews as child murderers, perhaps the first of its kind in Latin Europe. A critical translation follows.

Child murders: Social responses, psychosocial factors, and safeguarding measures

Child murders: Social responses, psychosocial factors, and safeguarding measures

A Study on Suicide after Child Murder: Recognizing Companion Suicide as A form of Child Abuse Death

A Study on Suicide after Child Murder: Recognizing Companion Suicide as A form of Child Abuse Death

Intersectionality of Race, Class, and Politics in Tayari Jones's Leaving Atlanta

Tayari Jones's first novel Leaving Atlanta (2002) portrays the focus the African-American encounters in the Southern United States, particularly the ways in which their lives are affected by the inequitable structures in which they reside. Jones’s writing is a performance of her desire to bring the marginalized history of Blacks to the center and others to the margin. Leaving Atlanta is a narrative with three distinct voices that explores the process of maturing and highlights the government's failure to protect the black population in Atlanta during the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979-81. Jones brings in all the historical past within the framework of ‘intersectionality’ to express the tragic incidents in a wider view. The objective of the paper is to delve into the interconnectedness between age, race, class, gender, and politics in the backdrop of the Atlanta Child Murders to provide justice for the traumatizing events that happened to innocent children. Jones opted to employ the viewpoints of youngsters in her novel in order to document the experiences of those young individuals who lacked the cognitive capacity to comprehend the intricate social and political milieu of Atlanta.

Question of improving the legislative structure of the composition of the murder of a newborn child by a mother is still relevant

The article shows that although more than 25 years have passed since the introduction of the privileged composition into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in 1996 – the murder of a newborn child by a mother (Article 106), interrelated issues of legislative regulation of this corpus delicti and the qualification of these crimes remain relevant; the author’s position on a number of points concerning the improvement of the legislative structure of the considered the composition of the crime. In particular, the opinion is defended that the key condition for imputation of Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are changes (deviations) in the psyche of a woman that occur under the influence of the peculiarities of the course of her pregnancy and childbirth, or under the influence of other external circumstances that can injure the psyche of a woman (traumatic circumstances) when she retains control over her behavior, That Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should not apply to those women whose intent to kill their unborn child was formed during pregnancy, the latter contradicts the essence of the privileged corpus delicti; it is proposed to exclude the term «newborn» from the disposition of Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, since its literal interpretation unreasonably restricts the use of this corpus delicti.

Place where neonaticide was committed as a feature of the objective side of the crime

Is devoted to the study of the place of the murder by the mother of a newborn child as a feature of the objective side of the crime. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the crime scene from the legal, criminological and geographical points of view. Consider separately the place of birth of the child, the place of the murder of the newborn, the places of burial and the discovery of the body of the neonate. Text analysis of court decisions in criminal cases incriminated under Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is used as the main method of scientific research. Statistical and geographical methods contribute to study the data on crimes under Article 106 of the Criminal Code, as well as comparative-legal method is used in the study of the act from a criminal law point of view. Conclude that most frequent cases of newborns murder are committed by mothers in regions of Russia with high population density - most often in Central Russia, the North Caucasus, the Volga region, the Kama region and Southern Siberia. In almost half of the cases, this crime is committed in rural settlements. The research shows certain consistency between the high number of committed crimes related to the murder of a newborn child by a mother, the level of income of the population and the level of socio-economic development of the regions. Most often, the place of committing the above acts is a dwelling (house, apartment and bathrooms in them), about 1/4 of the crimes are committed in the yard and/or outbuildings located in it. The authors distinguish separately the places where the bodies of murdered neonates are found, since the place of the crime and the place where the corpse of an infant is found differ due to the desire of recently delivered women to conceal the fact of murdering. Apart from the house, the most common places a newborn corpse is found are garbage dumps, containers and garbage cans, as well as pit latrines and abandoned places in the street.

From flesh to paper: bodily and material transformation in seventeenth-century Copenhagen – a case-study

Abstract This article investigates the transformation of the body of a female child murderer as she passed through specific spatial configurations in the urban setting of the seventeenth-century capital of Denmark–Norway. By using the case of Gertrud Nielsdatter, we explore the significance of public urban spaces in the bodily and material transformation of a woman from a condemned sinner to an object of scientific wonder. This transformation was facilitated by practices in diverse public spaces – controlled or influenced by government, city, church, as well as academic authorities and stakeholders – such as the city court, the place of execution, the university and, not least, the book shops across Europe selling books containing the print representing internal organs of Gertrud Nielsdatter. The case demonstrates how the physical body of an ordinary – yet outlawed – Copenhagener was repeatedly transformed in interaction with public spaces and the material culture of buildings, fixtures and fittings.

The Role of The Media in Revealing Social Problems - Murder Crime as An Example

Basically, There Are Two Types Of Murder, Deliberate Murder And Accidental Murder (Act Of God). This Study Is Devoted To Deliberate Murder, Such As (Murder For Money, Honor Killing Based On Honor Pretext, Murder By Torture, Murder As A Result Of Sexual Assault, Murder Of Children, Murder Due To Violence And Beating. However, As It Has Been Showcased in This Study, In Kurdistan Region Unlike Any Other Place, There Are Many Other Types of Murders on Various Reasons Such as Car Light Signaling, Pigeons, Children's Fights, Household Water Wells, Car Parking, Dog Fights, Roosters’ Fights, Gender Transition, Electricity Circuits, Chocolate, Land Properties, Religious Conversion, Leading in Folk Dance).&#x0D; According To the World's Renowned Website (Our World in Data), In 2019 Alone, More Than (415,000) Thousand People Died in Deliberate Murder, Which Is Almost Three Times Higher Than the Number of Those Who Were Killed In Armed Clashes, Wars Terrorism And Conflicts On Countries’ Level. In Kurdistan Region, Although The Number Of Deliberate Killings Has Decreased In The Past Five Years, Yet Compared To Most Countries In The World, The Rate Is Still Alarming. In The Study’s Findings It Is Highlighted That Non-Compliance Of Media To Applicable Laws And Regulations, Lack Of Monitoring Of The Media In General In Presenting News On Murder, Showing Crime Related Programs And Movies And Lack Of Family Vigilance On The Use Of Electronic Games And Social Networks As Well As Lack Of Professional Journalists And Capable Staff, The Social Problem Of Murder Is More Evident And Has Affected The Mental State And Social Security Of Individuals And Families In Society.

Clawing Through Bits of Glass and Bricks: James Baldwin and Reinhold Niebuhr on the Birmingham Church Bombing

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the unpublished dialogue between James Baldwin and Reinhold Niebuhr where they discussed the role of the Christian church in the wake of six child murders in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. On that catastrophic day—one that is impossible to forget—the Ku Klux Klan bombed The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and two black boys were subsequently shot and killed. In the wake of that violence, this article will show that for Baldwin, the dynamite that exploded the face of the “alabaster Christ” from the stained‐glass window presents an opportunity for not only a new depiction of Jesus in terms of presentation—but more significantly—a brand‐new Christology rooted in black liberation. Such a reading provides us with an unusual constructive theological position offered by Baldwin, especially once it is read alongside a public essay written by the Association of Artists for Freedom advocating for Black Christmas.

African Vernacular Symbols of Black Intersex Children in Sinethemba Ngubane's Installations (2007-2016)

African Vernacular Symbols of Black Intersex Children in Sinethemba Ngubane's Installations (2007-2016)

Child murder by parents: Toward prevention

Child murder by parents: Toward prevention

‘I Laid Earl and Clementine on a Chair and Whipped Them’: Child Murder and Criminal Justice in the Jim Crow South

Abstract This article explores a horrific 1945 child murder in New Orleans and argues that the case revealed broader developments in Southern criminal justice in the age of Jim Crow. Ernestine Bonneval tied her young children to an ironing board and lashed them, killing her 7-year-old daughter. The murder generated outrage, with residents demanding severe punishment, even the gallows, for the brutal crime. After a jury returned a guilty verdict, the judge sentenced the killer to one year in the state penitentiary. New Orleanians initially expressed fury at the lenient punishment but quickly conveyed sympathy for the murdering mother and perceived her as the victim of a failed legal system. The shift reflected four wider changes in white sensibilities about the role of the state. First, New Deal programs establishing a safety net during the Great Depression transformed white attitudes toward government authority. Second, Clementine Bonneval’s death became tethered to a national panic over juvenile delinquency, even though the victim was only 7. Third, gender ideals influenced perceptions of women who engaged in criminal violence. Fourth, and most important, Southern whites increasingly encoded violence as an African American behavior. As a consequence, white killers became hapless victims of circumstances beyond their control. The Bonneval murder was reinterpreted within a racialized construction of crime and criminal culpability that produced more aggressive policing and more draconian punishment for African American suspects and fewer arrests, indictments, convictions, and long prison sentences for white killers. Jim Crow, in short, shaped the modernization of Southern criminal justice.

Rachel Dixon (2022) Infanticide: Expert Evidence and Testimony in Child Murder Cases, 1688-1955. London: Routledge

Victoria Nagy reviews Infanticide: Expert Evidence and Testimony in Child Murder Cases, 1688-1955 by Rachel Dixon.

Secondary Agency: Toni Morrison, Toni Cade Bambara, and the Making of Those Bones Are Not My Child

This article examines the writing and publication of Toni Cade Bambara’s posthumously published novel Those Bones Are Not My Child using the philosophical concept of secondary agency to attend to the careful and compassionate process by which Black women set out to tell the stories of trauma and survival on behalf of others who cannot—or will not—speak. It reads the fictional character Zala Spencer and her attempts to locate and tell the story of her son, who was kidnapped during the Atlanta Child Murders, alongside Bambara’s own attempts to tell the story of those murders and in the context of Toni Morrison’s role in posthumously publishing this novel. In particular, it traces the efforts of these three women who aim to tell a story without appropriating it and who are mindful of both the peril and power of silence. Drawing on Black feminist scholarship and the archival and material evidence of Bambara’s work, it suggests that a reading of the novel’s narrative, the various drafts of its prologue, and its materiality offer a portrait of the complicated intimacy at the heart of secondary agency.

Law Enforcement Efforts for Child Murder

The purpose of this study was to find out what are the factors that cause children to commit murder crimes, as well as to find out what efforts are made by the Gorontalo City Police in overcoming the occurrence of a murder crime committed by children. This research was conducted using empirical legal research methods. The results of this study can be seen that the factors that cause children to commit murder are internal factors which include unstable emotional factors, misunderstanding factors, vengeful factors, psychological factors, and weak faith factors. While on external factors, namely family factors, economic factors, alcoholic beverage factors, and child neglect factors. While the countermeasures carried out by the Gorontalo City Police are pre-emptive efforts which are basic actions in the form of appeals, then preventive efforts are continued efforts preemptive in the form of direct and repressive preventive measures which are punitive efforts or law enforcement efforts