[Neonaticide: A classification of female perpetrators in an east-west comparison]

Abstract

Background: The term neonaticide describes the act of killing a newborn child by a parent (mostly by the mother) within 24 h after birth. The aim of this study was to establish a classification of female perpetrators using psychopathological, mental, social and biographical characteristics and to make a comparison of the frequency between the old and new federal states in Germany.

Material and methods: In this study a total of 63 female German perpetrators who killed at least one newborn between 1986 and 2009 are portrayed and classified by epidemiological and psychopathological characteristics and personality profiles. After obtaining consent from the public prosecutors responsible, data were collected from forensic psychiatric expert opinions and legally valid court verdicts. A questionnaire was established to answer the questions on the psychopathological, e.g. do the women suffer from a mental disease when killing their newborn(s), mental, e.g. can personality accentuations be elicited, social, e.g. are the women unemployed and biographical characteristics of the women, e.g. how old are the women? Finally, an investigation was carried out using significance tests to find out if there was a significant statistical difference in the frequency of neonaticide between the eastern and western federal states.

Results: A cluster analysis based on the descriptive analysis was developed. The cluster analysis provided a foundation for a dichotomous classification of the perpetrators depending on five criteria. The first category contained 32 perpetrators who were on average 21 years old, who were primiparous and who hid, ignored or did not perceive their pregnancy. Most of them still lived with their parents. The perpetrators either did not have a mental disease or suffered from an acute stress disorder. The second category contained 31 perpetrators who were on average 25 years old, who were pluriparous, who hid their pregnancy and who lived with their partner. These women either did not have a mental disease or suffer from a personality disorder. A statistically significant higher incidence was found in the eastern federal states of Germany.

Conclusion: The presented categorization of female perpetrators into two groups, where the features only show a small degree of overlap, should be taken into consideration in the assessment of the reasons for neonaticide. The typology of female perpetrators is more heterogeneous than previously assumed. The presented typologies and knowledge of conditional constellations involved in neonaticide achieve better prerequisites to be able to recognize persons at risk earlier and to instigate preventive measures.