Infanticide

INFANTICIDE, the killing by a mother of her child (usually illegitimate) during childbirth or immediately after. This narrowing of the concept is explained by the comparative leniency of punishment measures for infanticide in this understanding compared to any other murder, in particular with the murder by a mother of an older child or the murder by a father of his child (a phenomenon becoming more frequent recently in connection with the payment of alimony), which is punished quite severely. Soviet legislation in all republics (with the exception of the Ukrainian SSR) does not have special articles on infanticide in the criminal code. However, judicial practice shows that, despite this, the overwhelming majority of cases accused of infanticide end with relatively mild measures of social defense. Thus, out of 586 cases in 1924 and 1925 across 24 provinces, 57.8% of all cases ended in a suspended sentence, and in the Moscow province, out of 145 cases from 1925–27, a suspended sentence was handed down in 53.3%. This leniency of sentencing stands out particularly sharply when compared with repressive measures in murder cases, where a suspended sentence occurred

only in 11.2%, while a higher measure (5–10 years) was applied in 37.7% (whereas in infanticide cases—only in 4.6%). A similar phenomenon can be seen in the West and in pre-revolutionary Russia, where, despite harsh legislation, a large number of cases ended in acquittal. Before the 19th century, infanticide, on the contrary, was punished by the death penalty. Infanticide as a social phenomenon is connected, on the one hand, with the material need of the mother (according to data from the Moscow Cabinet for the Study of the Criminal Personality in 36.9%), who usually conceived the child from a casual affair and was abandoned by the father before the onset of labor (recently, cases of the father pushing the mother toward infanticide, wishing to avoid paying alimony, are not rare), and on the other hand, with social prejudices that have survived to this day, especially in the peasant environment, regarding illegitimate children, as a result of which an acute sense of shame pushes the mother to infanticide (according to the same data from the Moscow Cabinet for the Study of the Criminal Personality in 60.2%). Connected with this is the characteristic family, cultural, and social composition of infanticidal mothers, which is visible from the following tables (according to data from the Moscow Cabinet for the Study of the Criminal Personality for 1925–27). Place of commission of infanticide: City 33.1%, Village 66.9%. Per 1,000 population: City 0.6, Village 2.1, Total 1.3. Social composition of convicted women (Total in %): Peasants 64.7%, Workers 12.1%, Domestic workers 16.4%, Others 6.8%. In the city: Peasants 24.2%, Workers 65.5%, Others 10.3%. It should be noted that domestic workers are the same peasants who recently arrived in the city and have not broken ties with the village. Educational level of infanticidal mothers and other murderers (in %): Education: Higher, Secondary, Lower, Illiterate. Among infanticidal mothers: 5.8, 65.7, 29.5, 0.3. Among murderers: 9.5, 77.9, 12.3. Marital status: unmarried 71.2%, married 12.8%, widowed and divorced 16.0%. These few figures quite clearly characterize the cadre of infanticidal mothers, and at the same time show that in our conditions, infanticide is a remnant of capitalist relations. On the other hand, historical-ethnological study of infanticide shows that infanticide was known even in antiquity. At the present time, infanticide is still preserved among many primitive peoples (among various Polynesian tribes, among Papuans, etc.). In recent years in the USSR, there has been an increase in the number of cases accused of infanticide, which is connected mainly with an increase in the percentage of infanticide detection, and not with an increase in the number of infanticides, which, on the contrary, is decreasing. Number of discovered infant corpses (according to forensic medical examination data). Years

Number of D.! 1908 1,781 1,2 1,1 1,511 1 0,9 1924 ......... 501 | 0,8 675 1 0,8 648 | 0,7 According to Gernet's data, in the pre-war years, for every 100 discovered child corpses there were 20 cases of D., whereas for 1926-27 in the Moscow guberniya, 45-50% of all D. became the subject of judicial proceedings. Besides the two causes mentioned, the mental state of the lying-in woman plays a large role in infanticide. Due to birth trauma (aggravated by fear of discovery of a usually concealed pregnancy and fear for the future), she is in a state of bewilderment. The accounting of the mental state of infanticides has always been one of the reasons for mitigating their fate. Biological conditions of the personality of the female criminal also play a large role in preparing the ground for D. Most often these are young girls, mentally insufficiently stable, sometimes feeble-minded, women experiencing motherhood for the first time. A state of emotionally colored tension lasting for several months in a mentally inferior personality, whose body has been brought into a physically ready state for psychopathic reactions by pregnancy and childbirth, can relatively easily resolve into an impulsive and not always clearly conscious discharge in the form of an act of murder. The question of the culpability of infanticides, which was long one of the most controversial problems of criminal and judicial psychiatry, is now decided in the sense that the emotional state of the female criminals, if it is not accompanied by a gross violation of consciousness or is not the result of a mental disease, by itself is not considered a ground for excluding culpability. However, the presence of undeniable acute emotion and the low cultural level of most infanticides fully justify raising the question of mitigating the sentence with respect to them. Cases of parents killing children of a later age are a relatively rare phenomenon. Most often they are the consequence of the killer's mental illness; however, there are cases where the cause was a lack of means of subsistence, the father's unwillingness to support a feeble-minded child or pay alimony. As for the murder of other people's children, besides professional murders of children by midwives and wet nurses by agreement with the mothers, which have no psychopathological significance, in criminal psychopathology of the last decades the most interest was aroused by such crimes committed by underage girls who had fallen into a social environment alien to them (usually during the period of sexual maturation) in relation to the children entrusted to their care. The psychological basis of the crime in these cases was homesickness combined with aversion to the work performed. Besides crimes of this kind committed once in a state of acute emotion, cases of multiple murders of children by the same servant have also been described (though very rarely). In this last group of cases (besides the motive usually given by the killer herself at the investigation that she was tired of her position), apparently factors of sadistic-erotic motives also played a role. For example, a 13-year-old girl, after strangling two of her pets, could only explain that she wanted to do it very much; another girl learned to cause death first to animals, and then to children, by suddenly inserting her fingers with great force into their rectum; a third killed six of the entrusted children at different times by thrusting a long pin through the fontanelle into their brain when they began to cry and fuss (see also Impulsive mania). To establish the fact of D., a judicial-medical autopsy of the child's corpse is necessary. In suspected D., the expert must resolve several questions and first of all: was this infant born alive or dead? If the infant is stillborn (see Stillbirth), then there is generally no deprivation of life. The second question: if the infant was alive, is it a newborn? If the infant is not a newborn, then its killing is considered, from a judicial-medical point of view, not as D., but as simple murder. Having established that the infant was born alive (see Livebirth) and was a newborn (see), the expert clarifies the cause of its death. The death of newborns can also be natural, for example: from immaturity (see Prematurity), non-viability (see Viability), complications of childbirth, etc. Violent death in relation to newborns can be murder or an accident. It is known that sometimes childbirth can occur suddenly, and then the fetus, quickly expelled from the birth canal, can fall. When falling on hard objects, injuries to the head occur, sometimes fatal. If the infant falls into a liquid over a toilet bowl, a household bucket, etc., then drowning occurs. The umbilical cord either breaks itself or comes out with the placenta during the fall; sometimes the umbilical cord is completely torn from the navel. A broken and placenta-exiting umbilical cord does not always indicate birth with a fall. The mother can sever the umbilical cord, and birth with the placenta also occurs in normal births. Significant injuries to the head occur only when falling from a significant height onto a hard surface; if this is not the case, then it is likely intentional murder with a blunt instrument. Deaths of newborns associated with failure to provide first aid are close to an accident. Such is (rarely) death from bleeding from an unligated umbilical cord. Usually there is no bleeding even from a severed umbilical cord, much less from a broken one, but as an exception this occurs (e.g., in hemophilia). Severe bleeding from the umbilical cord was observed more often at the time of its detachment and was caused by a septic process. Furthermore, a newborn can die from suffocation in egg membranes, from being face down, etc. A newborn can be consciously left without help, but more often the cause here is simply inexperience (in secret births, loneliness) or fainting. Among active methods of killing a newborn, mechanical asphyxia (see) takes first place. The methods of asphyxia used are: 1. Closing the respiratory openings. Strangulation by hand leaves traces in the form of skin abrasions with hemorrhage around the openings of the mouth and nose; the use of soft objects leaves almost or no local signs. 2. Introduction of foreign objects into the mouth and pharyngeal cavity. If they are removed after the newborn's death, only general signs of asphyxia will remain, and perhaps some traces on the mucous membrane of the mouth. 3. Strangulation by hand and tightening of the neck with a loop-a handkerchief, rag, rope, etc. In strangulation by hand on the neck, superficial abrasions or nail prints usually appear (rarely); furthermore, deep and intense hemorrhages in the soft parts of the neck are common. Injuries can also occur from self-help by the lying-in woman, therefore it is not easy to recognize their true origin. Undoubtedly, self-help can lead to significant injuries, but injuries from self-help do not kill the birthing infant. Sometimes strangulation of the umbilical cord before birth is observed; in such cases the fetus is born dead. The last sign distinguishes this type of death from umbilical cord strangulation committed by the mother. 4. Drowning and smothering (with earth, sand, etc.). Besides other signs, the following are found: in drowning-corresponding fluids in the lungs and partly in the gastrointestinal tract, and in smothering-sand, etc., in the deep parts of the lungs. The second place is occupied by D. with the use of various mechanical instruments. Here, injuries to the head with a blunt object occur most often. However, even outside attempts at D., cracks and even fractures of the skull bones can occur (during childbirth). One must also keep in mind post-mortem injuries to the skull bones due to careless handling of the little corpse. Rarely, in D., injuries to the head with a sharp-piercing and sharp-cutting weapon are inflicted. Finally, with the aim of D., in individual cases, cold, poisoning, etc., are resorted to. In cases of foundlings, death follows from cooling. - Thus, determining the cause of violent death of newborns is not always easy. Difficulties are increased even more if the corpse is damaged. The basis of the expert's conclusion is the data of the autopsy, as well as all other circumstances of the case. In cases where data on violent death are insufficient, the expert must emphasize this in his conclusion.