The Crime of Filicide

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the research of R. Farooque and F. A. Ernst on filicide. The paper explores the studies on the psychological and criminal perspectives of filicide and on the factors that increase the likelihood of filicide. The paper notes commonalities in filicide deaths and outlines the initiatives to prevent filicide.

From the Paper:

"Farooque and Ernst (2003) provide a detailed exploration of filicide; one of the most misunderstood lethal crimes in society. Both disturbing and incomprehensible, filicide is a form of parental homicide that can be differentiated by the age of the victim. Neonaticide refers to the murder of a neonate within the first 24 hours of life; infanticide refers to pre-toddlers, while the murder of children toddler aged and older is generalized as filicide (Farooque & Ernst, 2003). Filicide can further be delineated by symptoms, including hormonal or psychiatric dysfunction. There are several causal factors related to filicide, and most profound is the data related to neonaticide. Mothers who commit neonaticide are most often young adolescents who are unmarried, live with their parents, are impoverished, uneducated, unknowledgeable about child development and prenatal care, and are often anxious about the untimely pregnancy."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Farooque, R., & Ernst, F. A. (2003). Filicide: A review of eight years of clinical experience. Journal of the National Medical Association, 95(1), 90-95.
• Friedman, S. H., Horwitz, S. M., & Resnick, P. J. (2005). Child murder by mothers: A criticalanalysis of the current state of knowledge and a research agenda. The American Journalof Psychiatry, 162(9), 1578-1588.
• Spinelli, M. G. (2001). A systematic investigation of 16 cases of neonaticide. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(5), 811-814.
• Stanton, J., & Simpson, A. (2001). Murder misdiagnosed as SIDs: A perpetrator's perspective.Archives of Disease in Childhood, 85(6), 454-460.
• Wissow, L. (1998). Editorial: Infanticide. The New England Journal of Medicine, 339(17),1239-1242.

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