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Patterns of Behavior Among Women who Kill Their Children

By Kathryn Seifert, Ph.D.The future well-being of a society is directly linked to its ability to care for and educate its young. This taskoften falls to mothers. Mothers that cannot effectively care for their children without assistance can abuse,neglect or even kill their own children. The roots of female violence must be understood in order to prevent it.

A study of female violence (Seifert, 2008) indicated that adult females with histories of aggression hadmoderate to severe behavior problems that began before the age of 13, assault of an authority figure,impulsivity, delinquency, running away from home, substance abuse, beliefs in the legitimacy of aggression as ameans to an end, few pro-social peers, behavior problems at school, home or work, lack of success in school,job, or as a home maker, family violence and low warmth in their family of origin, and lack of appropriateboundaries in family of origin or present family. A third of women with chronic assaults lacked remorse, and hadpositive attitudes toward antisocial behavior, emotional displays that were out of control, deviant peers, andexcessive absenteeism from school or work in addition to the general characteristics cited above. Additionally itappears that the number and the severity of traumas experienced by a woman are associated with the numberand severity of behavior problems a woman has. Steffensmeier and Haynie (2000) found that economicdisadvantage and social disorganization was associated with adult female homicide. Campbell (1993) suggeststhat women express violence in response to stress and frustration. This author proposes that stress, poverty andfrustration alone are not sufficient for a woman to become violent. She must also have poor skills to cope with

the frustrations she faces, an inability to manage her emotions, and a childhood model that set violence as anexample of interpersonal relationships. It is the combination of these factors that results in violence.Additionally, treatment must address all of these factors in women who are at risk for violent acting out.

Females are most likely to kill a spouse (19% of victims of female homicide), a friend/acquaintance (17%), or aboyfriend or girlfriend (10%) and least likely to kill an employee/er (.1%) or a sibling (1%) (BJS). Twelve percentof US homicide offenders (BJS) and 12% of identified serial killers are female (Newton, 2000). The motive for41% of female serial killers is money. Substance abuse is more likely to be involved when an abused womanmurders her abusive male partner. Additionally, most mothers who kill their children are psychotic, understress, isolated, have long histories of mental illness, and have been abused or exposed to domestic violence aschildren. Some number of infanticides are associated with psychosis of the mothers which was clearly identifiedbefore these tragedies took place. These women may also be off of their medication that they need to reducetheir psychotic thinking, as we have seen in several highly publicized cases.

Two hundred women kill their children in the US every year. Eleven are on death row. Several mothers whokilled their children have been highly publicized. The investigation of the alleged murder of Caylee Anthony byher mother Casey has been in the news nearly every week. It is now clear that if found guilty, she may face thedeath penalty. We need to understand female violence in order to prevent it. We do not fully understand whywomen kill their children, but we know some of the reasons. Jill Korbin has studied the topic and found thatmost women who kill their children are having difficulty parenting and this is evident long before they kill theirchildren. Some even tell others they fear killing their children, but no one believes them.

For example, Andrea Yates allegedly was psychotic, had been hospitalized for suicide attempts, was havingtrouble parenting, was under tremendous stress, and had been taken off her antipsychotic medication when shekilled her children. It was reported in the media that Lashaun Harris was hospitalized twice for schizophrenia,told people she wanted to feed her children to the sharks, was living in a homeless shelter and had stopped

taking her medication when she threw her three children into the San Francisco Bay. According to reports, SusanSmith had a boyfriend who didn't want children. She drowned her two small children and made a plea for theirreturn on TV to cover up what she had done. Some of these women could have been helped before theirchildren came to such tragic and unspeakable ends. There must be a stronger safety net for children whosemothers are suffering from severe mental illness, post partum depression, borderline personality disorder,psychosis, substance abuse, attachment problems, and Complex PTSD. This will involve destigmatizing mentalillness and educating family members about how to help those with mental illness and making services such asparenting education, mental health services including medication, and day care readily available for all at riskparents.

Early identification and intervention into violent and unstable homes, where parents need help raising their

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children in a healthy way is essential to stop the brutal cycle of family violence. As a society, we must interveneearly with appropriate therapy, health care, and family supports for all families in which mothers are havingsignificant difficulty caring for their offspring. A good program that provides support and education for familieswith young children is the Healthy Families home visiting program. Home visitors provide services, support anddevelopmental information for parents and children. It is a program that has been proven to reduce child abuse.Universal health care for families can increase appropriate medical care for post partum depression and severemental illness among mothers who are caring for children, our country's future.

Until we learn to help vulnerable families care for their children, we will continue to see such tragedies. Theyare to some degree preventable. Until we fully recognize the importance of and support the parental task ofcaring for our young, we will not stop the cycle of violence.