Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom"

225 Pages·2001·0.78 MB·English

by  Cheryl L. Meyer

MOTHERS WHO KILL
THEIR CHILDREN

M OT H E R S W H O K I L L
T H E I R C H I L D R E N
UNDERSTANDING THE ACTS OF MOMS FROM
SUSAN SMITH TO THE “PROM MOM”
❏
Cheryl L. Meyer and Michelle Oberman
with
Kelly White, Michelle Rone, Priya Batra,
and Tara C. Proano
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
To our mothers,and mothers everywhere,
in homage to the sheer force of will,resilience,and
eternal hope they show in undertaking to love,
in spite of all that stands in their way.
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
© 2001 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meyer, Cheryl L., 1959–
Mothers who kill their children : understanding the acts of moms
from Susan Smith to the “Prom Mom” / Cheryl L. Meyer and
Michelle Oberman ; with Kelly White . . . [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8147-5643-3 (alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-8147-5644-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Filicide. 2. Infanticide. 3. Women murderers. 4. Mothers—
Psychology. 5. Mothers—Social conditions. I. Oberman,
Michelle. II. White, Kelly. III. Title.
HV6542 .M48 2001
364.15'23'0852—dc21 2001002177
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction: A Brief Cross-Cultural History
of Infanticide 1
1. Previous Attempts to Understand Why Mothers Kill
Their Children 19
2. Denial of Pregnancy: Secret Lives 39
3. Purposeful Killing: Neither “Mad” nor “Bad” 68
4. Maternal Neglect: A Search for Meaning 95
5. Abuse-Related Deaths 123
6. Assistance or Coercion from a Partner: Relations to
Domestic Violence 146
7. Responding to Mothers Who Kill: Toward a
Comprehensive Rethinking of Law, Policy,
and Intervention Strategies 168
Notes 179
Index 213
About the Authors 218
v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Wewould like to thank our partners and our families for their patience
and love. Without them, this book might have been written, but it
would have lacked a soul. We are also indebted to our coauthors Mi-
chelle Rone, Tara Proano, Priya Batra, and Kelly White for their long
hours of research and their collaboration through the equally long proc-
ess of writing and editing. We are grateful to our respective institutions,
DePaul University and Wright State University, for generous support
during the completion of this project. Finally, we are thankful to our ed-
itor, Jennifer Hammer, whose encouragement inspired us along the way
to completion.
vi
INTRODUCTION
A Brief Cross-Cultural History of Infanticide
❏
There is every reason to believe that infanticide is as old as human soci-
ety itself, and that no culture has been immune. Throughout history,
the crime of infanticide has reflected specific cultural norms and imper-
atives. For instance, infanticide was legal throughout the ancient civi-
lizations of Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, and was justified on
grounds ranging from population control to eugenics to illegitimacy.1
Archeological evidence suggests that infant sacrifice was commonplace
among early peoples, including the Vikings, Irish Celts, Gauls, and
Phoenicians.2
Historians of infanticide cite a host of factors associated with the in-
cidence of this crime: poverty, overpopulation, laws governing inheri-
tance, customs relating to nonmarital children, religious and/or super-
stitious beliefs regarding disability, eugenics, and maternal madness.3
This broad range of explanations for the act of a mother killing her child
suggests that infanticide takes quite different forms in different cul-
tures. Indeed, there is no intuitively obvious link between the exposure
1
INTRODUCTION
of disabled or otherwise ill-fated newborns in ancient Greece, for exam-
ple, and the practice of female infanticide in modern-day India.
Nonetheless, a close examination of the circumstances surrounding
infanticide reveals a profound commonality linking these seemingly un-
related crimes. Specifically, infanticide may be seen as a response to the
societal construction of and constraints upon mothering. Factors such as
poverty, stigma, dowry, and disability are significant because they fore-
tell the impact that an additional baby will have upon a mother, as well
as upon her existing family.
Infanticide is not a random, unpredictable crime. Instead, it is deeply
imbedded in and is a reflection of the societies in which it occurs. The
crime of infanticide is committed by mothers who cannot parent their
child under the circumstances dictated by their unique position in place
and time. These circumstances vary, but the extent to which infanticide
is a reflection of the norms governing motherhood is a constant that
links seemingly disparate crimes.
Nonetheless, even a cursory survey of cases involving women who kill
their children reveals enormous variation in the circumstances sur-
rounding these crimes. However, there is very little systematic research
that identifies the patterns associated with such killings. This book sets
out to identify clear distinctions among the cases of contemporary
women who kill their children, shedding light on why some women
commit such acts and what intervention strategies might be helpful in
preventing the deaths of other children in the future.
Webegin with a historical survey, for it is our belief that if we are to
make sense of the persistence of infanticide in contemporary society we
must understand the manner in which cultural norms have shaped this
crime throughout history. Toward that end, this chapter provides a brief
chronological review of the sociocultural imperatives underlying the
crime of infanticide in various cultures. We do not seek to provide a
comprehensive record of the crime of infanticide. Rather, we wish to il-
lustrate the intricate relationship between a society’s construction of
parenthood and mothering, and its experience of infanticide.
2
INTRODUCTION
Ancient Cultures
Anthropologists maintain that prehistoric societies routinely prac-
ticed infanticide. The killing of newborns was a means of minimizing
the strain on societies with limited resources. Thus, according to an-
thropologists, disabled or sickly children were particularly at risk of
infanticide, as were female children who were viewed as a source of
future population growth.4 Over time, civilizations emerged. An ex-
amination of their histories reveals the cultural norms that shaped
their varying practices of infanticide. Several civilizations have par-
ticularly well-documented histories of infanticide, which illustrate
how the prevalence of infanticide may be driven by the sociocultural
construction of motherhood.
Greco-Roman Civilization
The earliest mention of infanticide in recorded history relates to dis-
abled newborns, and was committed almost exclusively by fathers
rather than mothers. Records from the Babylonian and Chaldean civi-
lizations, dating from approximately 4000 to 2000 , refer to disabled
B.C.
newborns as signs or omens from the gods and prescribe the manner of
interpreting and responding to these infants’ births. Interestingly, these
societies saw disabled children as omens of good or bad things to come,
but they did not necessarily kill them.5 However, by the time of the
Greek city-states, the killing of both disabled and able-bodied infants
was commonplace. Ancient Greco-Roman literature is replete with ref-
erences to the exposure of unwanted newborns, and the writings of
Plato, Seneca, and Pliny all refer to the practice. Generally, exposure was
viewed as a means of population control, undertaken with explicit eu-
genic overtones. For instance, the militaristic nature of Sparta witnessed
the routine exposure of all infants, male and female, thought unlikely to
make good soldiers or healthy citizens. Parents of deformed or small
newborns were ordered to take their offspring to a mountain or other
3