Editing Infanticide (section)

==Explanations for the practice==
There are various reasons for infanticide. Neonaticide typically has different patterns and causes than for the killing of older infants. Traditional neonaticide is often related to economic necessity – the inability to provide for the infant. In the United Kingdom and the United States, older infants are typically killed for reasons related to [[child abuse]], [[domestic violence]] or [[mental illness]].<ref name=Marks2009/> For infants older than one day, younger infants are more at risk, and boys are more at risk than girls.<ref name=Marks2009/> Risk factors for the parent include: Family history of violence, violence in a current relationship, history of abuse or neglect of children, and personality disorder and/or depression.<ref name=Marks2009/>

===Economic===
Many historians believe the reason to be primarily economic, with more children born than the family is prepared to support. [[Marvin Harris]] estimated that among [[Paleolithic]] hunters 23–50% of newborn children were killed. He argued that the goal was to preserve the 0.001% population growth of that time.<ref name="Cannibals&Kings"/>{{RP|15}} He also wrote that female infanticide may be a form of population control.<ref name="Cannibals&Kings">{{Cite book| last = Harris| first = Marvin| author-link = Marvin Harris| title = Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures| publisher = Random House| year = 1977| location = New York}}</ref>{{Rp|5}} Population control is achieved not only by limiting the number of potential mothers; increased fighting among men for access to relatively scarce wives would also lead to a decline in population. For example, on the [[Melanesia]]n island of [[Tikopia]] infanticide was used to keep a stable population in line with its [[carrying capacity|resource base]].<ref name="Collapse" /><!--He devotes a chapter to this aspect of Tikopia--> In 1888, Lieut. F. Elton reported that [[Ugi Island|Ugi]] beach people in the [[Solomon Islands]] killed their infants at birth by burying them, and women were also said to practice abortion. They reported that it was too much trouble to raise a child, and instead preferred to buy one from the bush people.<ref>{{cite journal| last = Elton| first = Lieut. F.| title = Notes on Natives of the Solomon Islands| journal = The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland| volume = 17| pages = 90–99| year = 1888| jstor = 2841588| doi = 10.2307/2841588| url = https://zenodo.org/record/1449550| access-date = 2 July 2019| archive-date = 26 November 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211126232521/https://zenodo.org/record/1449550| url-status = live}}</ref> Research by Marvin Harris and [[William Divale]] supports this argument, it has been cited as an example of [[environmental determinism]].<ref>{{Cite book| last = Hallpike | first = C.R.| title = The Principles of Social Evolution| publisher = Clarendon Press| year = 1988| location = Oxford| pages = 237–38}}</ref> However, it is argued that it has also occurred equally among rich and poor and during decadent periods of the [[Roman Empire]] as during earlier, less affluent, periods.<ref name="Hardness"/>{{rp|28–34, 187–92}}

In societies that are [[patrilineal]] and [[patrilocal]], the family may choose to allow more sons to live and practice [[female infanticide]], as sons will support their birth family until they die, whereas daughters will leave economically and geographically to join their husband's family, possibly only after the payment of a burdensome [[dowry]] price.<ref name="Hardness">{{Cite book| last = Milner| first = Larry S.| title = Hardness of Heart / Hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide| publisher = University Press of America| location =Lanham/New York/Oxford| year = 2000|isbn=978-0-7618-1578-5}}</ref>{{rp|362–68}} Under natural conditions, mortality rates for girls under five are slightly lower than boys for biological reasons. However, after birth, neglect and diverting resources to male children, such as biased feeding
practices, inadequate clothing during winter
and lower-quality health care,<ref name=WHO/> can lead to some countries having a skewed ratio with more boys than girls, with such practices killing an approximate 230,000 girls under five in India each year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/may/15/discrimination-deaths-girls-under-five-india-lancet-study|title=Discrimination kills 230,000 girls under five in India each year, study shows |date=15 May 2018|access-date=20 August 2018|work=The Guardian}}</ref> While sex-selective abortion is more common among the higher income population, who can access medical technology, abuse after birth, such as infanticide and abandonment, is more common among the lower income population.<ref>{{cite web|author=Mariya Karimjee |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/14/infanticides-on-theriseinpakistan.html |title=Infanticide is on the rise in Pakistan &#124; Al Jazeera America |publisher=America.aljazeera.com |date=14 January 2014 |access-date=18 February 2014}}</ref> Before the appearance of effective [[contraception]], infanticide was a common occurrence in ancient brothels and prostitutes in certain areas preferred to kill their male offspring.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14401305 ''Roman dead baby 'brothel' mystery deepens''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824155154/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14401305 |date=24 August 2018 }}, BBC</ref>

Cross-cultural research has found that infanticide is more likely to occur when the child has deformities or illnesses<ref name=Liddle/> and anthropologists have argued that they are often viewed as bad omens as raising such a child in poverty stricken communities are an insurmountable hurdle.<ref name=fp>{{cite news|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/09/the-right-to-kill-brazil-infanticide/|title=The Right to Kill|date=9 April 2018|access-date=9 June 2018|work=Foreign Policy}}</ref> For example, in southern Ethiopia, children with physical abnormalities are considered to be ritually impure or [[mingi]], with the ability to exert an evil influence upon others, so disabled infants have traditionally been disposed of.<ref>{{cite book|last=Petros|first=Gezahegn|title=The Karo of the lower Omo Valley: subsistence, social organisation and relations with neighbouring groups|year=2000|publisher=Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Administration, Addis Ababa University|page=57|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bE0wAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017033609/https://books.google.com/books?id=bE0wAQAAIAAJ|archive-date=17 October 2015}}</ref>

===Social stigma===
Infants have be killed for superstitious accusations, such as being witches, often by being buried alive or left to starve.<ref name=fp/> Those at higher risk of being accused and killed include the disabled, [[albino]]s, those born prematurely, twins,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irinnews.org/report/89858/rights-child-witchcraft-allegations-on-the-rise |title=Child witchcraft allegations on the rise – Angola – Benin – DRC – Central African Republic – Cameroon – Gabon – Nigeria – Chad – Children – Education – Gender Issues – Human Rights – Urban Risk |agency=IRINnews |access-date=5 March 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205090303/http://www.irinnews.org/report/89858/rights-child-witchcraft-allegations-on-the-rise |archive-date=5 February 2015  |date=15 July 2010 }}</ref> children of single mothers and [[intersex]] infants. Intersex infants commonly suffer from infanticide particularly in [[developing countries]], largely caused by stigma surrounding intersex conditions. Often intersex infants are [[Child abandonment|abandoned]], while others are actively killed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity/intersex-people|title=Intersex people|website=OHCHR|access-date=21 August 2023|archive-date=8 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708011645/https://www.ohchr.org/en/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity/intersex-people|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="OHCR1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/BackgroundNoteHumanRightsViolationsagainstIntersexPeople.pdf|title=Background Notes on Human Rights Violations against Intersex People|website=OHCHR|access-date=21 August 2023|archive-date=21 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230821201746/https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/BackgroundNoteHumanRightsViolationsagainstIntersexPeople.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39780214|title=The midwife who saved intersex babies|work=BBC News|date=May 3, 2017|access-date=21 August 2023|archive-date=15 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515044758/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39780214|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Legitimacy (family law)|Illegitimacy]] and its shame has led mothers or their families to kill infants.<ref>{{cite web |last1=PHULL |first1=IMRAN |title=Curse of Infanticide |url=https://nation.com.pk/25-Jun-2018/curse-of-infanticide |website=The Nation |access-date=9 July 2020 |date=25 June 2018 |archive-date=2 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202074949/https://nation.com.pk/25-Jun-2018/curse-of-infanticide |url-status=dead }}</ref> This was also the impetus for a mother's decision to give her child to a [[baby farmer]]. Baby farming is the practice of accepting custody of a child in return for payment. This was most common in Victorian Britain. Baby farmers sometimes neglected or murdered the babies to keep costs down.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mosalski |first=Ruth |date=2017-11-16 |title=The horrible story of the last woman to be hanged in Wales |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/horrible-story-last-woman-hanged-13906837 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Wales Online |language=en}}</ref>

===Psychiatric===
{{See also|Psychiatric disorders of childbirth}}
[[Postpartum psychosis]] is also a causative factor of infanticide. Stuart S. Asch, MD, a professor of psychiatry at [[Weill Cornell Medicine|Cornell University Medical School]] established the connections between some cases of infanticide and [[postpartum depression]].<ref>{{cite journal|title= Crib deaths: their possible relationship to post-partum depression and infanticide|date=2013-03-25 |pmid=5239550 | volume=35 |issue=3 |journal=J Mt Sinai Hosp New York |pages=214–20 | author = Asch SS}}</ref><sup>,</sup><ref>{{cite journal|title= Postpartum reactions: some unrecognized variations|date=2013-03-25 |pmid=4857893 | doi=10.1176/ajp.131.8.870 |volume=131 |issue=8 |journal=Am J Psychiatry |pages=870–74 |vauthors=Asch SS, Rubin LJ }}</ref><sup>,</sup><ref>{{cite journal|journal = Perspect Public Health| year = 2009 | volume = 129 | number = 5 | pages = 221–27 | title = Postnatal depression: a global public health perspective | vauthors = Almond P | doi=10.1177/1757913909343882| pmid = 19788165 | s2cid = 37712302 }}</ref> The books, ''From Cradle to Grave'',<ref>Egginton, Joyce. From Cradle to Grave. The Short Lives and Strange Deaths of Marybeth Tinning's Nine Children. 1989. William Morrow, New York</ref> and ''The Death of Innocents'',<ref>Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan. The Death of Innocents. Bantam, New York. 1997</ref> describe selected cases of maternal infanticide and the investigative research of Professor Asch working in concert with the New York City Medical Examiner's Office.
Stanley Hopwood wrote that childbirth and lactation entail severe stress on women, and that under certain circumstances attempts at infanticide and suicide are common.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hopwood| first = Stanley J.| title = Child murder and insanity| journal = Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology| volume = 73| page = 96| year = 1927}}</ref> The [[Infanticide Act]]s are several now repealed [[English Law|laws]] that, in 1922, made the killing of an infant child by its mother during the early months of life a lesser crime than murder, introducing the idea that [[postpartum depression]] was legally to be regarded as a form of [[diminished responsibility]]. A study published in the ''[[American Journal of Psychiatry]]'' revealed that 44% of filicidal [[father]]s had a diagnosis of [[psychosis]].<ref>{{cite journal | last = Campion| first = John|author2=James M. Cravens |author3=Fred Covan| title =A study of filicidal men| journal = [[American Journal of Psychiatry]] | volume = 145| issue = 9| year = 1988| pages = 1141–44| doi = 10.1176/ajp.145.9.1141| pmid = 3414858}}</ref> In addition to postpartum psychosis, dissociative psychopathology, and sociopathy have also been found to be associated with neonaticide in some cases.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Spinelli MG | year = 2001 | title = A systematic investigation of 16 cases of neonaticide | journal = American Journal of Psychiatry | volume = 158 | issue = 5| pages = 811–13 | doi=10.1176/appi.ajp.158.5.811 | pmid=11329409}}</ref>

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, "loopholes" were invented by some suicidal members of [[Lutheran]] churches<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://sciencenordic.com/christianity-crime-death/danes-killed-to-get-killed/1462820|title = Danes killed to get killed|date = 14 March 2012|access-date = 18 September 2021|archive-date = 18 September 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210918010141/https://sciencenordic.com/christianity-crime-death/danes-killed-to-get-killed/1462820|url-status = live}}</ref> who wanted to avoid the damnation that was promised by most Christian doctrine as a penalty of suicide. One famous example of someone who wished to end their life but avoid the eternity in hell was [[Christina Johansdotter]] (died 1740). She was a Swedish murderer who killed a child in Stockholm with the sole purpose of being executed. She is an example of those who seek suicide through execution by committing a murder. It was a common act, frequently targeting young children or infants as they were believed to be free from sin, meaning they would go "straight to heaven".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Watt |first1=Jeffrey Rodgers |year=2004 |title=From Sin to Insanity: Suicide in Early Modern Europe |publisher=Cornell University Press}}</ref> Although mainstream Christian denominations, including Lutherans, view the murder of an innocent as being condemned in the Fifth Commandment, the suicidal members of Lutheran churches who deliberately killed children with the intent of getting executed were usually well aware of Christian doctrine against murder, and planned to repent and seek forgiveness of their sins afterwards. For example, in 18th century [[Denmark]] up until the year 1767, murderers were given the opportunity to repent of their sins before they were executed either way. In 1767, religiously motivated suicidal murders ceased in Denmark with the abolishment of the [[Capital punishment in Denmark|death penalty]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sciencenordic.com/christianity-crime-death/danes-killed-to-get-killed/1462820|title=Danes killed to get killed|date=14 March 2012|access-date=18 September 2021|archive-date=18 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918010141/https://sciencenordic.com/christianity-crime-death/danes-killed-to-get-killed/1462820|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Evolutionary psychology]] has proposed several theories for different forms of infanticide. Infanticide by stepfathers, as well as child abuse in general by stepfathers, has been explained by spending resources on not genetically related children reducing [[reproductive success]] (See the [[Cinderella effect]] and [[Infanticide (zoology)]]). Infanticide is one of the few forms of violence more often done by women than men and this has been explained as since women generally have a greater [[parental investment]] than men, spending resources on an unfit child would decrease the mother's [[inclusive fitness]].<ref name=Liddle>{{Cite journal | last1 = Liddle | first1 = J. R. | last2 = Shackelford | first2 = T. K. | last3 = Weekes–Shackelford | first3 = V. A. | title = Why can't we all just get along? Evolutionary perspectives on violence, homicide, and war | doi = 10.1037/a0026610 | journal = Review of General Psychology | volume = 16 | pages = 24–36 | year = 2012 | s2cid = 142984456 }}</ref>