During the 19th and 20th century, Sweden saw a dramatic increase of illegitimate children. The phenomenon was not however equally distributed, as the frequency was much lower in the western parts of the country. In several doctoral thesis, the development has been explained with the advancing industrialization of the modern society. The primary aim of this study has been to test this thesis in Västbo district 1860-1939. The district, which is located in the heart of the south western parts of Sweden, had around the turn of the century 1900, several more or less industrialized towns, but was still strongly influenced by the surrounding agrarian parishes. As expected, the parishes with an established industry, tended to have a higher proportion of illegitimate births than those of agrarian character. Therefore, the same thesis that has been accepted on a national scale, can also be applied on a local scale, even within the region that represents a low proportion of illegitimate births. The study has also proven that the majority of the illegitimate children’s fathers were unknown, which often put the mother in a difficult economic and social situation. On the other hand, a bigger proportion of the fathers were identified from 1926, when each municipality was obliged to institute a child welfare committee. The main material of the study has been the birth books and the child welfare committees’ protocols.

This study analyzes illegitimate children. The children’s mothers age when giving birth, their occupation, if their fathers are unknown or not are some of the study’s main questions. The study’s questions examine in eight parishes, six from Sunnerbo district and two from Västbo district. The investigations period is 1860-1945, divided into five different periods. This is a comparative study in time perspective but also in a perspective of different areas. The purpose of this study is to analyze the proportion of illegitimate children in the different parishes, compare them to each other and then to the proportions in the entire country.  The study shows that a smaller number of illegitimate children was born in the eight parishes then in the entire country. This study as similar others on the field proves that the majority of the illegitimate children’s fathers were unknown. The fact that a great number of fathers were unknown often put the unmarried mothers in a difficult economic and social situation. The unmarried mother’s profession was maid or in Swedish piga in most of the parishes from 1860 to 1931. The unmarried mothers age is hardly shifting between the different time periods and in the different parishes, but the average age was for example 28 between 1860-1870 and 26 in 1880 to 1890.

In the following essay I have studied child suffocation and infanticide in Västbo district in Småland 1860–1949. This has been done with a quantitative study of the district's death and funeral books which have shown the reduced frequency of the phenomena over time. I have also been able to point to a connection where child suffocation tended to occur in cases where the parents were married. Infanticide, on the other hand, was in most cases caused by an extramarital affair. Based on theories concerning the role of marriage,combined with the assumption that a female ideal is constructed on the basisof two counter-images, I have been able to show how the child murderer was seen as a greater threat to the social morality, compared with the married woman who suffocated her child in her sleep. Thus, there was also a greater tendency to punish the former more severely. In the qualitative part of thestudy, I have reviewed the district court's records concerning child murderers. Based on a theory that pregnancies, births and morality fell within the scope of a female sphere of responsibility, I have analyzed the actions of to the accused woman's homosocial group. Here, the study has been able to shed light on a significant female presence. This was partly reflected in the gender distribution of witnesses, as well as in how the authorities seemed to show aconfidence in the female sphere to bring clarity to the case.