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Policy and Disparity: The Punishment of Infanticide in Britain and America

NCJ Number
172175
Journal
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Dated: special issue (Fall 1997) Pages: 305-316
Author(s)
D Maier-Katkin; R S Ogle
Date Published
1997
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article argues that the lack of specific public, legal, and medical policy in the United States concerning infanticide results in random inequity of charges, dispositions, sanctions, and treatment of offenders.
Abstract
In the United States, studies of maternal infanticide (and female violent behavior in general) have been rare. Children represent about 35 percent of female-perpetrated homicide victims and there is reason to believe that this number may be significantly higher based on estimates of deaths attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). In much of the industrialized world infants face a homicide rate approximately four times higher than that of the general population. In America, infanticide is regarded as an undifferentiated subclass of homicide. This effectively ignores the social history of infanticide and the many possible causes identified by researchers. The article claims that the US inequities in charges, dispositions, sanctions and treatment of offenders with regard to infanticide is unnecessary, as demonstrated by British and European legal systems, and is in direct opposition to the policy of minimizing disparity. Note, references

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