What compels criminal parents (either mom or dad) to take the lives of their own children?

Thank you for this detailed response showing differences between the father and mother (paternal versus maternal) and how most mothers are dealing with psychosis or psychosocial difficulties while fathers are often jealous, abuse alcohol, or have a personality disorder.

Why is this so high in Finland specifically I wonder?

"Domestic violence and child abuse have also been the focus of many national projects in the hope that they will prompt the authorities to identify situations in which children are in danger". I wonder what national projects they are using to prompt authorities. It seems to be a real problem there are there not enough supports in place for people with children?

A great question - This is perhaps one of the strangest crimes set against the backdrop of evolutionary history.

Filicide is the name given to the murder of a child by their parents or step-parents. This comes from a Latin word meaning 'son'/'Daughter'.

All impulses should direct the parent to protect rather than endanger the life of the child given the evolutionary imperative and preservation of genes.

Which makes this a truly strange crime.

A twenty-five-year review (Kauppi et al, 2010) of filicide occurrences in Finland gives us some crucial clues - and perhaps a way to reduce rates of filicide.

The review is at the end of the summary.

Under review were 200 filicides

Stats:

1. First, most filicides were carried out by mothers 59%.

2. Fathers committed filicide in 39% of cases

3. Stepfather filicide accounted for about 2% of cases

Contributing factors:

The article gives some striking clues as to what drives this type of crime.

When mothers took the lives of children, there was often a psychological component often anguish, and psychosocial stressors. There was a lack of support in place, and often these acts were determined by the mothers to be altruistic(misguided love). Often the crime was followed by suicide. In 51% of the cases, psychosis and psychotic depression were revealed to be present.

This factor is perhaps becoming more and more known since conditions such as post-partum become an acknowledged part of maternal experience. With less judgment and more support - perhaps we will remove these factors which contribute to maternal filicide.

Also perhaps not surprising - paternal filicide was often governed by jealousy. In 67% of cases, paternal filicide had a background of personality disorder, and 45% of cases were marked by alcohol abuse.

In a number of these cases, previous emotional trauma/abuse by parents also proved noteworthy showing how these abuses can form a generational meme.

Link to a paper exploring these issues:

(Hope this helps)

jaapl.org

The purpose of this retrospective study was to illustrate the differences in maternal and paternal filicides in Finland during a 25-year period. In the sample of 200 filicides [neonaticides ( n = 56), filicide-suicides ( n = 75), other filicides ( n = 69)], the incidence was 5.09 deaths per 100,000 live births: 59 percent of filicides were committed by mothers, 39 percent by fathers, and 2 percent by stepfathers. The mean age of the maternal victims (1.6 y) was significantly lower than that of the paternal victims (5.6 y), but no correlation between the sex of the victim and the sex of the perpetrator was found, and the number of female and male victims was equal. The sample of other filicides ( n = 65) was studied more closely by forensic psychiatric examination and review of collateral files. Filicidal mothers showed mental distress and often had psychosocial stressors of marital discord and lack of support. They often killed for altruistic reasons and in association with suicide. Maternal perpetrators also dominated in filicide cases in which death was caused by a single episode or recurrent episodes of battering. Psychosis and psychotic depression were diagnosed in 51 percent of the maternal perpetrators, and 76 percent of the mothers were deemed not responsible for their actions by reason of insanity. Paternal perpetrators, on the other hand, were jealous of their mates, had a personality disorder (67%), abused alcohol (45%), or were violent toward their mates. In 18 percent of the cases, they were not held responsible for their actions by reason of insanity. During childhood, most of the perpetrators had endured emotional abuse from their parents or guardians, some of whom also engaged in alcohol abuse and domestic violence. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between maternal and paternal filicides in a sample of 200 cases in Finland. This report also provides a psychosocial profile of the perpetrator and victim in 65 filicides and a discussion of the influence of diagnoses on decisions regarding criminal responsibility.