Die Tötung von Neugeborenen gehört zur Seltenheit im rechtsmedizinischen Obduktionsgut, stellt aber dennoch ein relevantes Thema dar. Ziel der Arbeit: Die Häufigkeit von Neonatiziden, die Feststellung regionaler Unterschiede oder Besonderheiten, ein Vergleich vor und nach der politischen Wende, sowie die Erfassung morphologischer Veränderungen an getöteten Neugeborenen soll dargestellt werden.

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Maternal filicide, the murder of a child by its mother, is a complex phenomenon with various causes and characteristics. Research, by means of the development of several classification systems and in identifying particular risk factors, has been conducted with the aim of better prevention of this emotionally evocative crime. Various disciplines have offered a wide range of perspectives on why women kill their biological children. These are intended to yield a better understanding of the aetiology of this crime. This literature review delineates three dominant perspectives: psychiatric, psychological, and sociological. The main findings of each perspective are discussed. However, these three perspectives frequently operate in conjunction with each other in that both intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics play a role in acts of maternal filicide. The most vulnerable women appear to be those who have had a severely deficient developmental history (trauma and/or grossly inadequate parenting), those who experience current difficult psychosocial circumstances, and those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness. However, not all women who experience such problems kill their children. In this regard, individual differences have an important role to play and more carefully delineated future research is suggested. One of the most significant findings of this literature review is that there appears to be a paucity of systematic research on the South African phenomenon of parental child homicide. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Moedermoord, die moord van ’n kind deur sy of haar moeder, is ’n komplekse verskynsel met verskeie oorsake en karaktereienskappe. Navorsing deur die ontwikkeling van verskeie klassifikasiestelsels en die identifisering van spesifieke risikofaktore is uitgevoer met die doel om hierdie misdaad, wat soveel emosies ontlok, beter te voorkom. Verskeie dissiplines bied ’n wye verskeidenheid perspektiewe oor die redes waarom vroue hul biologiese kinders vermoor. Die doel van hierdie perspektiewe is om ’n beter etiologiese begrip van hierdie vorm van misdaad te verkry. Die literatuurstudie dui drie dominante perspektiewe aan: psigiatries, psigologies en sosiologies. Die hoofbevindinge van elke perspektief word bespreek. Hierdie drie perspektiewe werk dikwels saam aangesien sowel intrapsigiese en interpersoonlike dinamiek ’n rol in moedermoorddade speel. Die kwesbaarste vroue blyk dié te wees met ’n ernstig gebrekkige ontwikkelingsgeskiedenis (trauma en/of ernstig onvoldoende ouerskap), diegene wat hulle in moeilike psigososiale omstandighede bevind, en dié wat met ’n psigiatriese siekte gediagnoseer is. Nie alle vroue wat hierdie probleme ervaar, vermoor egter hulle kinders nie. In hierdie opsig speel individuele verskille ’n belangrike rol en word versigtig afgebakende toekomstige navorsing voorgestel. Een van die belangrikste bevindinge van hierdie literatuuroorsig is dat daar ’n gebrek aan sistematiese navorsing oor die Suid-Afrikaanse verskynsel van kindermoord deur ouers blyk te wees.

Die Tötung von Neugeborenen gehört zur Seltenheit im rechtsmedizinischen Obduktionsgut, stellt aber dennoch ein relevantes Thema dar. Ziel der Arbeit: Die Häufigkeit von Neonatiziden, die Feststellung regionaler Unterschiede oder Besonderheiten, ein Vergleich vor und nach der politischen Wende, sowie die Erfassung morphologischer Veränderungen an getöteten Neugeborenen soll dargestellt werden.

The current study examines county-level characteristics and their impact on child homicide. This work uses Durkheimian theory and tests the concept of solidarity by using variables that constitute integration and regulation. In addition, some variables are drawn from other theoretical perspectives, mainly social disorganization and anomie theories, to better explore additional macro-level indicators. Data were obtained from multiple locations. Homicide data for children, from birth through five years, utilized in this work came from the National Incident-Based Reporting System. County level socio-demographics were obtained from the Census. Political party affiliation (Republican or Democrat) came from Politico, and religious data were collected by InfoGroup and organized into groups by the Association of Religion Data Archives. This study aims to increase our understanding of how macro-level contextual and situational factors may help guide policy makers, law enforcement personnel, and any other individuals who are concerned with areas where there are varying degrees of risk for child homicide

O Código Penal Brasileiro, atualmente em vigor, prevê o crime de infanticídio como o ato de matar, sob a influência do estado puerperal, o próprio filho, durante o parto ou logo após. Trata-se de crime cuja agente é necessariamente a parturiente ou a puérpera. Com pena reduzida em relação ao homicídio, é considerado um crime excepcional, pelo fato de ser cometido por mulher sem completo domínio dos seus atos. No Brasil, os saberes sobre o tema são produzidos especialmente nas doutrinas penais e médico-legais, sendo restrito o diálogo com pesquisas empíricas que analisam o fenômeno do infanticídio sob uma ótica interdisciplinar. O presente trabalho apresenta uma etnografia dos usos e entendimentos do tipo penal infanticídio, feita por meio da análise de sete processos judiciais; 179 acórdãos, entrevistas e conversas informais com personagens processuais envolvidos em casos nos quais se discutiu se tratar de infanticídio; participação em três sessões de julgamento, pelo Tribunal do Júri, de mulheres acusadas da morte de seu/sua recém-nascido/a; e análise da produção sobre infanticídio publicada em doutrinas penais e médico-legais. Seu principal objetivo foi compreender como quem acusa, defende ou julga essas mulheres utiliza e interpreta o tipo penal infanticídio e os elementos que fazem deste crime peculiar. Mapeei, também, que visões de mulher, maternidade, crime feminino estão embutidas na construção desse tipo penal específico, bem como a maneira como este é trabalhado nas defesas e acusações judiciais. Por fim, identifiquei como os casos são apresentados e decididos no Sistema de Justiça Criminal. Concluí que há uma grande discrepância no modo como estes são interpretados e julgados, apesar da semelhança nítida que há entre eles, tendo as moralidades dos personagens processuais peso considerável nos rumos tomados nos autos. A mulher acusada de matar seu/sua recém-nascido/a é considerada mais ou menos cruel dependendo das lentes com as quais o caso é visto, sendo as expectativas acerca de uma maternidade sadia parâmetro para se julgar. / The present Brazilian Criminal Code establishes infanticide as a criminal offense, describing it as the act of killing, under the influence of the \"puerperal state\", ones own child, during labor or shortly after. The offender is necessarily the laboring or puerperal woman. Considered an exceptional crime, its sentence is shorter than a homicide, for its committed by a woman not fully aware of her acts. In Brazil, the knowledge on the issue is produced mostly in criminal and legal-medical doctrinal analysis, limiting the dialogue with empirical researches that analyses the infanticide phenomenon under an interdisciplinary approach. This work presents an ethnography of uses and understandings of infanticide as a criminal offense, by means of the analysis of seven judicial cases; 179 decisions; interviews and informal conversations with people with roles in cases related to infanticide; participation in three Jury trials of women accused of the death of their own newborns; and analysis of the literature on infanticide published in criminal and legal-medical doctrinal analysis. Its main purpose is to understand how who accuses, defends or judge women for the death of their newborns uses and interprets the criminal offense infanticide and the elements that make this a peculiar crime. I have also mapped which visions of woman, motherhood, and feminine crime are enmeshed in the building of this specific criminal offense, as well as the way it is engaged in judicial accusations and defenses. Finally, I have identified how cases of women accused of the death of their own newborns are presented to and decided by the Criminal Justice System. The research concludes that there is a great discrepancy in the way the cases are interpreted and decided, despite the notorious resemblance between them, for the morality of the processual characters has a relevant impact on the unfolding of the process. The woman accused of killing her own newborn is considered more or less cruel depending on the lenses by which the case is regarded, as the expectations of what is a healthy motherhood are the judgement parameters.

Le propos de ce travail de recherche est de présenter la notion de série puis d’en montrer les apports pour une exploitation du phénomène sériel lorsqu’il se joue dans le champ criminel. L’étude de la série dans les divers registres qu’elle occupe nous a mené à la proposition globalisante du phénomène sériel à entendre comme un système dynamique chaotique dont l’attracteur étrange serait la répétition. Il a ensuite été choisi d’identifier le concept de répétition pour insister sur le fait que larépétition n’est pas seulement celle d’une même chose où d’un même élément. La question est ici : qu’est ce qui insiste et comment ? Les quatre axes compréhensifs de la répétition que nous soutenons sont ceux de : production de différence, négation, réparation, interpellation. Appliqué au champ criminel nous avons émis l’hypothèse que la série criminelle n’est qu’une variante, un avatar d’une série non criminelle, qui vient comme une ultime interpellation. Cette hypothèse nous l'avons soumise à une deuxième hypothèse : la logique interne de la répétition criminelle se joue dans les interfacesséquentiels de la série criminelle, dans un hors champ. Dans un deuxième temps nous avons choisi comme terrain d’observation une situation criminelle spécifique : le néonaticide, meurtre d’un enfant nouveau-né. Pourquoi s'interroger plus particulièrement sur l'enjeu psychique des femmes qui tuent leurs enfants à la naissance ? Parce qu’elles induisent une réflexion fondamentale sur le couple agresseur victime, illustrent l’acte infractionnel comme interpellation ultime du lien social et bouleversent la norme de la maternité. Pour vérifier nos hypothèses nous avons eu recours à la mise en travail de l’analyse sérielle séquentielle qui se prévaut de référents tels que les processus et les vulnérabilités axiomatiques, l’étude des impasses et des aménagements défensifs. Nous avons mis en travail l’analyse sérielle séquentielle au sein de l’analyse psycho criminologique d’un cas sériel.Le résultat de cette mise en travail a corroboré nos hypothèses sur le phénomène sériel, système dynamique chaotique régi par une loi déterministe mais au devenir aléatoire, d’une part et d’autre part il nous a permis de consolider les propositions de l’analyse sérielle séquentielle. La série peut devenir un mode d’appréhension, une méthode de lecture faisant ressortir des cohérences internes, des processus de structuration singuliers / The purpose of this research is to introduce the concept ‘series’ and then to show its contributions to an examination of the serial phenomenon when it is active in a criminal context. The study of the “series” phenomenon is done through analyzing its record. this has led us to a comprehensive, generalized proposal about the serial phenomenon which can be understood as a dynamic, chaotic system. “chaotic” in the sense that it has an unusually attractive element: repetition. The concept of repetition was chosen to emphasize the fact that repetition is not only composed of doing a same thing, or choosing a single item. the issue here is what is emphasized and how? the four axes for understanding this repetition are those of: production of difference, negation, repair and interpellation. As applied to the criminal field, we hypothesized that the criminal standard is only a variant, an avatar of a series that derives from something not criminal, just as a final point of interpretation. we subjected this hypothesis to a second one: the internal logic of criminal repetition is examined in thesequential interfaces of a different criminal context. In a second step we have chosen to observe a specific criminal situation: neonaticide, killing a newborn child. Why investigate the psychic stake of women who kill their children at birth? Because such an examination leads to a fundamental reflection on the dichotomy of aggressor/victim. it can show this unlawful act as an ultimate element in social cohesion, something totally disruptive of the standard of motherhood. To test our hypotheses we did our work on the serial sequential analysis relying on references such as axiomatic process andvulnerabilities, the study of dead ends and defensive adjustments. We implemented the sequential serial analysis into a psycho-criminological analysis of a serial case. The result of this work has confirmed our assumptions about the serial phenomenon as a chaotic dynamic system governed by a deterministic law but with a random future. on the other hand it allowed us to consolidate the proposals of the sequential serial analysis because in fact the series can become a mode ofapprehension, a reading method showing the internal consistency and the singular processes of structuring