Editing Infanticide (section)

=== Great Britain ===
Infanticide (as a crime) gained both popular and bureaucratic significance in [[Victorian era|Victorian]] Britain. By the mid-19th century, in the context of criminal lunacy and the [[Insanity defense|insanity defence]], killing one's own child(ren) attracted ferocious debate, as the role of women in society was defined by motherhood, and it was thought that any woman who murdered her own child was by definition insane and could not be held responsible for her actions. Several cases were subsequently highlighted during the [[Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1864–66]], as a particular felony where an effective avoidance of the [[Death penalty in the UK|death penalty]] had informally begun.

[[File:Amelia dyer1893.jpg|thumb|upright|Baby killer [[Amelia Dyer]] (pictured upon entry to [[Mendip Hospital|Wells Asylum]] in 1893). Her trial led to stricter laws for adoption and raised the profile of the fledgling [[National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children]] (NSPCC) which formed in 1884.<ref name="monster">{{cite news |title=Amelia Dyer: the woman who murdered 300 babies |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/amelia-dyer-the-woman-who-murdered-300-babies-8507570.html |access-date=29 August 2020 |agency=The Independent}}</ref>]]

The [[Poor Law Amendment Act 1834]] ended [[English Poor Laws|parish relief]] for unmarried mothers and allowed fathers of illegitimate children to avoid paying for "child support".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://people.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1989-0/haller.htm|title=Bastardy and Baby Farming in Victorian England|last=Haller|first=Dorothy L.|website=Loyola University New Orleans|access-date=2018-08-31|archive-date=2019-05-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523012357/http://people.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1989-0/haller.htm}}</ref> Unmarried mothers then received little assistance, and the poor were left with the option of either entering the [[workhouse]], turning to prostitution, resorting to infanticide, or choosing abortion. By the middle of the century infanticide was common for social reasons, such as illegitimacy, and the introduction of [[child life insurance]] additionally encouraged some women to kill their children for gain. Examples include [[Mary Ann Cotton]], who murdered many of her 15 children as well as three husbands; [[Margaret Waters]], the 'Brixton Baby Farmer', a professional [[Baby farming|baby-farmer]] who was found guilty of infanticide in 1870; Jessie King, who was hanged in 1889; [[Amelia Dyer]], the 'Angel Maker', who murdered over 400 babies in her care; and [[Ada Williams (baby farmer)|Ada Chard-Williams]], a baby farmer who was later hanged at Newgate prison.

''The Times'' reported that 67 infants were murdered in London in 1861 and 150 more recorded as "found dead", many of which were found on the streets. Another 250 were suffocated, half of them not recorded as accidental deaths. The report noted that "infancy in London has to creep into life in the midst of foes."<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=rtl_ttda&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=&docId=CS135043741&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 |title=Infanticide in London |date=29 April 1862 |work=The Times [London, England] |page=8 |via=The Times Digital Archive |access-date=31 August 2018 |archive-date=5 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605020856/http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do |url-status=live }}</ref>

Recording a birth as a [[Stillbirth|still-birth]] was also another way of concealing infanticide because still-births did not need to be registered until 1926 and they did not need to be buried in public cemeteries.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002148/18950201/084/0006|title=Trafficking in Babies. An Interview with Coroner Braxton Hicks|date=1 February 1895|work=Leicester Daily Post|page=6 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> In 1895 ''The Sun'' (London) published the article, "Massacre of the Innocents", highlighting the dangers of baby-farming, the recording of stillbirths, and quoting [[Athelstan Braxton Hicks]], the London coroner, on lying-in houses: {{blockquote|I have not the slightest doubt that a large amount of crime is covered by the expression 'still-birth'. There are a large number of cases of what are called newly-born children, which are found all over England, more especially in London and large towns, abandoned in streets, rivers, on commons, and so on... [A] great deal of that crime is due to what are called lying-in houses, which are not registered, or under the supervision of that sort, where the people who act as midwives constantly, as soon as the child is born, either drop it into a pail of water or smother it with a damp cloth. It is a very common thing, also, to find that they bash their heads on the floor and break their skulls.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Secret Commissions: An Anthology of Victorian Investigative Journalism|last1=Donovan |first1=Stephen |last2=Rubery|first2=Matthew |publisher=Broadview Press|year=2012|isbn=978-1-55111-330-2|location=Peterborough, Ontario |pages=232–69 |chapter=Herbert Cadett. Massacre of the Innocents}}</ref>}}

The last British woman to be executed for infanticide of her own child was [[Rebecca Smith (infanticide)|Rebecca Smith]], who was hanged in Wiltshire in 1849.

The [[Infant Life Protection Act 1897]] required local authorities to be notified within 48 hours of changes in custody or the death of children under seven years. Under the [[Children Act 1908]] "no infant could be kept in a home that was so unfit and so overcrowded as to endanger its health, and no infant could be kept by an unfit nurse who threatened, by neglect or abuse, its proper care, and maintenance."

Instances of infanticide in Britain in the 18th and 19th&nbsp;centuries are often attributed to the economic position of the women, with juries committing [[Jury nullification|"pious perjury"]] in many subsequent murder cases. The knowledge of the difficulties faced in the 18th&nbsp;century by those women who attempted to keep their children can be seen as a reason for juries to show compassion. If the woman chose to keep the child, society was not set up to ease the pressure placed upon the woman, legally, socially or economically.<ref>{{cite book |last=McLynn |first=Frank |title=Crime and Punishment in 18th&nbsp;Century England |publisher=Routledge |location=London, UK |year=1989 |page=102}}</ref> 
In mid-18th century Britain there was assistance available for women who were not able to raise their children. The [[Foundling Hospital]] opened in 1756 and was able to take in some of the illegitimate children. However, the conditions within the hospital caused [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] to withdraw funding and the governors to live off of their own incomes.<ref name="unknown 1878">{{cite journal |title=The Foundling Hospital and Neighbourhood |journal=Old and New London Journal |volume=5 |year=1878 |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ |access-date=12 July 2010 |archive-date=23 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110223025617/http://british-history.ac.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This resulted in a stringent entrance policy, with the committee requiring that the hospital:

:Will not receive a child that is more than a year old, nor the child of a domestic servant, nor any child whose father can be compelled to maintain it.<ref name="unknown 1878"/>

Once a mother had admitted her child to the hospital, the hospital did all it could to ensure that the parent and child were not re-united.<ref name="unknown 1878"/> MacFarlane argues in ''Illegitimacy and Illegitimates in Britain'' (1980) that English society greatly concerned itself with the burden that a bastard child places upon its communities and had gone to some lengths to ensure that the father of the child is identified in order to maintain its well-being.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacFarlane |first=Alan |chapter=Illegitimacy and Illegitimates in English History |chapter-url=https://www.alanmacfarlane.com/TEXTS/bastardy.pdf |page=75 |publisher=Arnold |year=1980 |title=Bastardy and its Comparative History |access-date=2023-08-22 |archive-date=2023-06-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230625204553/https://www.alanmacfarlane.com/TEXTS/bastardy.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Assistance could be gained through maintenance payments from the father, however, this was capped "at a miserable 2&nbsp;[[shilling|s]] and 6&nbsp;[[pence|d]] a week".<ref name="Rose 1986 28">{{cite book |last=Rose|first=Lionel |title=Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939 |page=28 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan |location=London, UK |year=1986}}</ref> If the father fell behind with the payments he could only be asked "to pay a maximum of 13&nbsp;weeks arrears".<ref name="Rose 1986 28"/>

Despite the accusations of some that women were getting a free hand-out, there is evidence that many women were far from receiving adequate assistance from their parish. "Within Leeds in 1822 ... relief was limited to 1&nbsp;[[shilling|s]] per week".<ref>{{cite book |last=Rose |first=Lionel |title=Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939 |page=25 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan |location=London, UK |year=1986}}</ref> Sheffield required women to enter the [[workhouse]], whereas Halifax gave no relief to the women who required it. The prospect of entering the workhouse was certainly something to be avoided. Lionel Rose quotes Dr&nbsp;[[Joseph Rogers (physician)|Joseph Rogers]] in ''Massacre of the Innocents ...'' (1986). Rogers, who was employed by a London workhouse in 1856 stated that conditions in the nursery were 'wretchedly damp and miserable ... [and] ... overcrowded with young mothers and their infants'.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rose |first=Lionel |title=Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939 |pages=31–33 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan |location=London, UK |year=1986}}</ref>

The loss of social standing for a servant girl was a particular problem in respect of producing a bastard child as they relied upon a good character reference in order to maintain their job and more importantly, to get a new or better job. In a large number of trials for the crime of infanticide, it is the servant girl that stood accused.<ref>{{cite book |last=McLynn |first=Frank|title=Crime and Punishment in 18th Century England |publisher=Routledge |location=London, UK |year=1989 |page=111}}</ref> The disadvantage of being a servant girl is that they had to live to the social standards of their superiors or risk dismissal and no references. Whereas within other professions, such as in the factory, the relationship between employer and employee was much more anonymous and the mother would be better able to make other provisions, such as employing a minder.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rose |first=Lionel |title=Massacre of the Innocents: Infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939 |page=19 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan |location=London, UK |year=1986}}</ref> The result of the lack of basic social care in Britain in the 18th and 19th&nbsp;century is the numerous accounts in court records of women, particularly servant girls, standing trial for the murder of their child.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hitchcock |first1=Tim |last2=Shoemaker |first2=Robert |url=http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ |title=The Proceedings of the Old Bailey |publisher=University of Sheffield and University of Hertfordshire |year=2006 |access-date=12 July 2010 |archive-date=15 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515160959/http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

There may have been no specific offense of infanticide in England before about 1623 because infanticide was a matter for the by [[ecclesiastical court]]s, possibly because [[infant mortality]] from natural causes was high (about 15% or one in six).<ref>{{cite book |title=Urban disease and mortality in nineteenth-century England |author1=Woods, R. |author2=Woodward, J. |publisher=Batsford |location=London |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-7134-3707-2}}</ref> Thereafter the accusation of the suppression of bastard children by lewd mothers was a crime incurring the presumption of guilt.<ref>{{cite web |title=The history of infanticide in England |first=Alan |last=MacFarlane |year=2002 |access-date=2012-11-07 |url=http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/A-INFANT.PDF |archive-date=1 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701030740/http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/A-INFANT.PDF |url-status=live }}</ref>