When their state of denial lifts, they are often wracked with remorse for what they've done.
The final circumstance that Resnick lists is uncommon but not unheard of among mothers who kill their children: spousal revenge. Though this is rare among women, one recent case that highlights it is the case of an Ontario mother, Elaine Campione, who drowned her two daughters in the bathtub, allegedly to keep her ex-husband from getting custody and to inflict intense suffering upon him. She even made a video only minutes after the murders, asking her ex-husband if he was "happy now" (CTV News 2010).
With all of these circumstances potentially leading parents, especially mothers, to murder their children, legal prosecution and defense of these cases can be difficult -- at times, heart-wrenching. In the cases of mothers who have killed their children, the great majority of the defenses center around pleas of insanity. However, understanding of psychoses, especially postpartum psychosis, is still a long way from complete, and medical experts do not always agree on what constitutes insanity in the context of postpartum physical and psychological stresses. In the case of Andrea Yates, for instance, she was initially found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. However, after the prosecution's only medical expert admitted to having given inaccurate testimony, her conviction was overturned and she was granted a retrial. By then, 4 years had passed and much more was understood about postpartum depression and psychosis, in part thanks to the attention brought to it by her initial trial. In the second trial, her insanity plea was successful and she was released from jail and committed to a mental facility.
Given the many circumstances that prompt maternal infanticide and the murkiness surrounding questions of rationality, mental health, and culpability, it is difficult to determine how best to prevent these crimes. There are some resources, however. Medical science is learning more every day about the mental and physical stresses associated with postpartum depression and psychosis. Studies have found, for instance, that women suffering from postpartum depression who attempt suicide have a 1-in-20 chance of trying to kill her children too (Szavalitz 2011). Recognizing suicidal thoughts as a possible indicator of infanticidal thoughts allows mental health professionals to more accurately diagnose and treat mothers who may become a threat to their children.
As for the other circumstances that may lead to a mother killing her child, many resources exist to help mitigate and/or eliminate them. There are a number of organizations dedicated to breaking the cycle of abuse and neglect that can lead to altruistic infanticide, psychotic breakdowns, and fatal batterings, the United States Department of Health and Human Services runs the Administration for Children and Families. This program provides a wealth of services and information for parents and extended families about how to recognize child abuse, how to report it, and how to help prevent it. One...
The scientists could then begin a genealogical study to exclude the possibility of a later introduction of the Y-chromosome into the family line (DNA Project website). An archaeological dig was begun last summer at the Roanoke site to see if any additional information can be determined about what took place. Scientists have done several excavations since the late 1940s, finding artifacts undoubtedly left by the colonists such as remains from
It also widened her female audience much further than the small group of upper-class women with whom she was acquainted (ibid). Overall, this work represented Lanyer as a complex writer who possessed significant artistic ambition and "who like other women of the age wrote not insincerely on devotional themes to sanction more controversial explorations of gender and social relations" (Miller 360). In her work, Lanyer issued a call to political action
Nor is she eligible to receive Medicaid, based on her minimum wage income. This has put the minimum wage earning single parent in a situation where she must devote her minimum wage to food and healthcare, if healthcare is available to her through her job, and, if it is not, she becomes medically uninsured. TANF now allows states money to.".. spend their share of federal block grant funds ($16.38 billion annually)
For instance, Sylvy could have decided to go with the man and leave her rural life. She could have left the life of poverty and gone back to the city. Had she made this choice she knew that she would never have to worry about money again. However, having come from the city originally, she also knew the personal freedom that she would be giving up. She felt that
World-Bank-assisted Women-in-Development project for Ethiopia proposes to socially and economically help vulnerable women participate and benefit from its increasingly expanding economy and opportunities in the private sector. It hopes to raise the standard of living of these women and contribute to alleviating poverty. On the whole, addressing all the constraints to the effective and realistic implementation of the National Policy on Women and forming grassroots women's organization would work towards
The second includes verbal and emotional assaults including persistent patterns of belittling, denigrating, scapegoating, and other nonphysical, but clearly hostile or rejecting behaviors, such as repeated threats of beatings, sexual assault, and abandonment. The third, residual, category includes other forms of emotional abuse such as attempted sexual or physical assaults; throwing something at a child but missing; withholding shelter, sleep, or other necessities as punishment, and economic exploitation (p.11). According
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