Editing Infanticide (section)

===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 The [[Infanticide Act]]s are several now repealed [[English Law|laws]] that, in 1922, made the killing of an infant child by its mother during the early months of life a lesser crime than murder, introducing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>