Maternal Infacide and Modern Motherhood research method

Method of data collecting: intensive interviews with 14 biological mothers held legally responsible by the courts for the death of their biological infant.

Case Sample Selection

Case selected from medical examiner files by victim age (36 months or younger) and manner of death (homicide)

Cross-reference with criminal justice files to locate offender of 380 cases, 61 biological mothers were identified, 31 located 15 agreed to be interviewed ( 1 neonatocide was not included).

Predispositional Factors:

Negative Socialization experiences

Abbusive

Disapproving parents

sexual abuse

substance abuse by fater

abusive, unsupportive, and antagonistic boyfriend/husband- crimmins et al (1995) "damaged selves"

Predisopostitional Factor:

lack of economic resources

Frequent absences by boyfriend/husband

adverse living condition

Predispostitional Factors

These factors results in emotional stress with subjects often using/abusing substances to cope

This stress, mitigated by substance abuse, set the background for an intense interchange leading to fatal injury of the infant.

Infacide as a Situated Transaction

(Lukenbill 1997)

Stage 1: Initial action by victim- incessant crying; prolonged illness; difficulty in trainging

Stage 2: Interpretation by offender as non-compliance- challenges mother's self-preception as a "mother"

Stage 3: Offender becomes more forceful in an attempt to restore order- typically shaking, hitting, yelling, and temporarily withdrawing

Stage 4: Continued noncompliance by victim- escaltaion of activity and heightened emotion due to intenseification of challenge of mother's self-perception

Stage 5: Fatal injury- typically head trauma

Sociological Argument

Sociological Argument:

Part 1

Parenting as a Social Institution

La Rossa (1986)- certian goals, values, beliefs and norms are associated with having children... parents are precieved and treated differently based on the expectations individuals and society hold for parents

Parents internalize the expectations- parents come to evaluate their ability to care for and control their children based on their own perception of how well they fulfill expectations

Sociological Argument:

Part 2

Inability to escape

The powerlessness and percieved lack of options created a socially constructed denality of parents, especially mothers

Not only are parents expected to fulfill the normative expectation of parenthood, but mothers are not allowed to escape the stress of unsuccessfull attempt to fulfillment.

Mothers, due to the societal beliefe in "maternal attachment", are allowed only to have an expressed postive feelings towards children

Negative feelings and expressions are considered egregious violation of motherhood norms

Expectation of Parenting:

the Content has Become Anomic

Begger (1966): Potential actors of institutionalized actions must be educated to the meanings; "Experts" provide the knowledge

We teach secondary socialization as a specialization role and experts have the stock of knowledge

Hays (1998) and Shorter (1978): expectations of parenting have changed rapidly; numerous child-rearing experts have emerged

Hays (1998): mothering has intensified over the past 2 1/2 decades

Mothers now have to "sort out mail"- have to manage a constant barrage of "how to Parent" media and idealistic images of family.

Stages 2 and 4

Adler and Baker (1997): non-compliance renders the mother powerless; unable to get the infant to comply with or to fulfill expectations of parenthood

Gidden (1984): action follow social expectation- to act otherwise means the individuals is capable of making a difference in a pre-existing state of affairs. Those who cannot effect this difference are powerless and view themselves having no other option

Lack of an option produces frustration perception of failure. This becomes a predispositon facto in escalation of violence.

Berger (1996) research

To the one being socialized, the institution appears inherent in nature, it appears unalterable and self-evident

Unmet normative expectations of motherhood reult in a negative interpretion of the infant's actions by the mother reusltin in a state of "powerlessneess" to fulfill her internalized expected role

Discussion and Implication

Continued non-compliance by the infant resulted in an escalation of violence

had the baby's initial action not been percieved as threatening; there would not have initial violence escalated

Had the mother been able to excape, the violence would have dissiplate

Hays (1998): The normative expectation of mothering have intensified over the years

Contirbutes to the stress of child-rearing resulting in non-realistic normative expectations held by society and internalized by mothers

Conclusion of Mother Infacide

Infants who have been raised by mothers who experienced negative life experiences and who do not percieve themselves as realistically meeting the normative expectations of motherhood are infats who are at risk of serious injury.

Hypothesis: as modern motherhood becomes more intense, rigid, and demanding; more infats will be at risk for lethal injury at the hand of their mothers.

Serial Murders Definitions

An individual who kills multiple (3+) victims at different times and often in different places with "cooling-off" periods between killings

Other definitional issues:

FBI recently operationalized the definition as 2 or more victims in an attempt to improve detection and prevention

Increasing brutality (Fox and Levin)

Victim and offender relationship must be a stranger; this implies a person cannot serially kill people they know.

Serial Killer Trends

Difficulty to estimate the amount due to difficulty in detection

"Successfull" vs. "Unsuccessfull" serial killers

Estimants range from about 35 to over 300 present in our society in any given year

1992 US National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes estimate theere had been 357 serial killers from 1960-1991

3169 victims- average 102 victims a year

Serial Killers

Gender pattern:

Males generally kill total strangers

Females typically kill persons in their costodial care (includign but not usually family members)

Weapons tend to be personal

Motivation is to achieve a sense of power and control over others, this varies

Adoption: there is a noticable number of serial killers who were adopted

other traits given in the book are not distinguished from non-serial homicide

Victims: Expendable People

Strangers more than known persons

Females more often then males

Women; children

Prostitutes

Neonatal intensive care babies

Elderly

Homeless

"Lonely and Isolated" persons in highly populated areas

Targets of hate such as gay men

Victims in general

"Successfull" killers may target private groups while "unsuccessfull" killers may target public groups ("Sudden death" groups)

Nature of a serical murder is shaped by two factors:

Availability to victim

Attitude of law enforcement agencies to those victims (concern vs. nonconcern affects detection)

As these factors cary, "waves" of new sercial murders varies

"Careers" can only develop if a number of other factors are present that create a victim population and a weakor confused law enforcement response

The phenomenon of serical murders is a function of the opprotunity to kill

Serial killers defy stereotypes of offenders

this hampers law enforcement

current population image: white male who is sexually moticated (inter-racial character defines stereotype of intra-racial, single-victim homicide)

Thrill Seeker Serial Killer

Instrumental violence to gain attention

out smarting law enforcement is a game

enjoy media attention

police prusuit

and encading authorities

They send a message

keep records

Mission Orientalion Serial Killer

Moral justification theory:

feel they are doing society a favor by eliminating certial people like prostitutes

Power and Control Serial Killer

Domination- enjoy the victim's terror, suffering, and screaming

Power of life and death (20% of known serial killers)

Instrumental Serial Killer

"Mercy Killer"

Economic Gains serial killer

Female Serial Killers

More likely to kill persons they know than strangers

economic serial killers

mercy serial killers "angels of death"

Female Mentally Ill Serial Killers

Psychotic/ASPD

erroneous ruled SID cases

Sexual predators

Female Serial SIDs

Eliminating unwanted children

does not run in families

assisted neonatocide and MSBP

Female Sadists are known as...

Female Revenge Serial Killer

Not well-supported typology

The cases of serial killer revenge are probably misinterpreted instrumental murder

Killing of families is more likely to be mass or spree murder

Detecting Serial Murderer

A serial killer can create a misleading crime scene- planting money, drugs, use graffiti

Strategies for detecting serial murderers

Establish routine "linking" activities

Death certifiers must review "sudden deaths" of vulnerable populations more closely

Sociobiology Theory of Serial Killing

Mitchell's hypothesis: "diathesis- stress syndrom"- some persons are genetically predispostion to use adnormal behavior when chroically faced with environmental stress

Rejection from family (environmental)

Biological factors (genetic)

Socioculutral environment: "life stressors" or strain (environmental)

Theories of Mass or Spree Murders

Secret service report "Safe School Initiative"- recent years, over 2/3 of school mass shootings, the offender had been bullied, ostracized, and socially rejected

Blamming Parents

Bad kid= Bad Home

parental responsibility laws

Peer and media influence over power positive parenting

The School Setting

The school setting can present certain issues and risks:

Children congregate in large numbers

Conflicts emerge

Feeling of inadequacy, anxiety, feer, hostility, rejection and boredom are bred

Vengeance is a possible outcome

The "Solution"

The implented solution has been increased security via law enforcement or technology

can lead to false sense of security

Zero tolerance of weapons, rumors or threats

Identification of threats via "risk factors"

Too many false positives

Can lead to marginialization and alientation due to stigma

Consequences of the "Solution"

Focusing on the student as the problem (and thus society) is alleviated of any responsibility for change. The blame can be located out of the school setting.

Students must change or be removed from the school setting

This serves the interest of the school but not the youth

Real Solution: Schools Change

Focus on unhappy students

Smaller schools with smaller classes

Zero tolerances of bullying and labeling

More adult supervisions of non-classroom activities

More school counselors

Community Volunteers

What is Extremism?

Taking a political idea to its limits

Intolerance

The end justifies this meaning

Lifestyle- not content

Dogmatism

Extremism

Most people have strongly held beliefs and ideas but the act in a reasonable, rational, and non-dogmatic manner

Extremists hate and agitate against other extremists. In this sense there is a symbolic relationship between opossing extremists

They justify each other's existence

More important than content with beliefs is "style" which is to adopt positions at the margins of society- "fringe positions"

It is not a position they take but how they take it

Can aslo be "centrists"- person who fall in the middle of the road of political or religious continuums of belief but who are dogmatic, uncompromissing, intolerant, and prejudice

Style hampers our understanding of the issues. This impairs the ability of non-extremists to make intelligent, well-informned decisions.

This is a oal of extremists: to tell us how to think, to confuse use to make us question our own morality or actions

Characteristics of Extremists

Generalized- character assissination; name calling; "evil" opponents; personalized hostility

used to keep others from hearing the debate

Unproven assertion of "facts"

argue; use slogans and buzz words; give emotional responses; hyper sensative; use supernatural rationalities for beliefs; use ambiguity

Dooms Day mentality- group think; conspiricy theory

Advocate double-standards- view themselves intentious (generous and moral) and they view their opponents in terms of actions (viewed critically)

Advocate censorship of opponets and freedom of spech for themselves. Information control often have motives they themselves do not recognize.

Feel no guilt or sense that they have done andything wrong.

Do a fulfilled "watchdog" fundation for society by keeping controversial issues at the forefront- can lead to social change.

Hate crime: Definition

When the motivation to committ a crime is hatred, bias, or prejudice based on the race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation of another individual or group of individuals, the crime is a hate crime (Congress)

It is the hatred of the group, not the individual that mes it a hate crime; it is very likely the offender does not know the victim

Hate Homicide

1990: Hate Crime Statistic Act mandated data collection

2003: 8715 hate crimes commited- 6934 offenders, 9100 victims; <1% ended in homicide

>1/3 of victims were African American

~1/8 of victims were homosexuals

~1/10 of victims were Jewish

Has high likelihood of severity: one half of all hate crimes reported to the police are at least brutal attacks that hospitalized victims.

Hate Crime

Offenders are often from a mean-spirited culture of hate and violence, in which vulnerable people are routinely disparaged, belittled, and insulted

many of our political leaders send messages of intolerance although they aren not extremists

Offenders justify and rationalized their violence by focusing on only the peopley they hate. They overlook or ignore collateral damage.

Domestic Terrorism: hate attacks are intended to send a message to all members of the victim group.

Backlash in legislation: reflected in efforts to reverse previous legisltive decisions

45 state have an anti-hate crime statutes but many are vague

Most hate crimes are not murders- they are intemidators and threats that excalate into violence; situational effects.

Race/Ethinicity, Hate Crime and Murder

Nativists hate crime offenders who seek out ethnic minorities to victimize because they believe them to be imigrants who are taking away opprotunities from Americans

Latinos: hate crimes against people who are struggling to feed families

California: 2000- 99 hate crimes against Middle Easterners; 2001-501 more than a five-fold increase

Sexual Orientation

Opponents of including the phrase "sexual orientation" in hate crime legislation argue it gives gaymen and lesbians speical rights and that it will legitmate homosexual behavior (29 states and DC)

Hate Crime murders of gay victims use greater levels of brutality than hate crime murders of heterosexual victims

Multiple offenders- gang-up; victim is outnumbered

Usually personal weapons and blunt objects because the assault is an "exercise" of the pent-up emotions of hate

Gender

Brutal deadly assault, often including sexual assault, stemming from a strong disdain of women, deadly bias against women

"Women are only good for two things"

"Women need to be kept in their place"

US has a good amount of hate crime legislation including "gender" but the FBI doesn't collect data on gender hate crimes

20 out of 45 states with hate crime legislation include gender. However, there has been only 2 successfull prosecutions to date

There is wider spread belief that crimes against women are not the same as hate crime against minority groups

There is assumption that "gender" means "women"

Social Learning Theory for Hate Crimes

Socilization into hate and technques of crime- hate is the movitvation and rationalization, techniques of how to kill, assault, and bomb targets are actively taught.

There is a "martydom aspect" that goes with not caring about the costs, become the reward of being a "moral" person is worth the cost.

Moral Justification Theory of Hate Crime

The offender believes he is "righting a wrong", that he is morally justified in his action; religious and for patriotism

Righious slaughter

Children Who Kill

Trends and the Law

The age of homicide offenders increases, than decreases in age

Us common law does not consider children younger of 7 years capable of mens rae (criminal intent)

The state of mind indicating capability which is required by statute as an element of a crime

Children Who Kill

Other Demographic Trends

Gender: 93% of juvenile homicide offenders ages 15-18 are male

Race: Just over half of known offenders are African Americans

Victims: intra-racial

Theory: ecological-innercity living conditions, lack of safe and positive schools, low-income parents (60-80 hours/week), unsafe housing, and higher crime rates in neighborhoods

Who do children kill?

Parricide: killing parentor both or close relative

Patricide-kill of father

Matricide- kill of mother

Heid(92)- three types of children who commit parricide

severly abused (most common); mentally ill, dangerously antisocial children

Families have a trouble history often including violence and heaviy alcohol consumption. Trapped due to "involuntary membership"

Demographics

White-upper middle or middle-class males with no juvieniall record

16-18 years and father most likely the victims

Good students

Believe to be close to family but abused by parents

Gang Homicide

Increase of homicide for ages 14-17 during the 1990s was largely due to gang homicide

Gang vs Non-gang Homicide (Klien 95):

Gang homicides tend to involve hispanic males; younger offenders; involve automibles and guns (drive-bys); more unknown victims (innocent bystanders of family members of a gang members); more unidentified offenders

Traits:

Multiple offenders; large-caliber automatic weapons; public arena; streets; young male offenders; race/ethnicity is not significant factor- not "hate crimes" but "turf battles"; drug involvement- non-gang homicides involving drugs are more likely than gang homicides

Types of Gangs

Criminal Gangs: engages in organized, economic crime, youth are recruited by low-level of the organization to do the street work

Violence is used-

within the gang to control possessionof criminal goods (drugs, stolen proerty, etc) and to reduce "embezzelment"

between gangs and other "business associates" to control the market- "drug wars"

Conflict Gangs: overt fighting over territory as an identity change can result in group "confrontational homicide"

Dynamics-

Intergroup rivalries; neighborhood turf battles, identity changes; intra-group threats

Which is more likely to result in youth homicide: gangs or guns?

Moore 1990: firearms ownership is a strong predictor of youth homicide than gang use of guns and drug sales

Types of Gangs continued

Methodilogical issues determining and mesuring the amount of gang violence related to non-gang violence.

No comprehensive data

Definition of "gang-related":

Participation (offender is a gang member)

Motive (homicide is a gang event or function)

Social Bond Theory

Asks: "Why do people conform?"

We conform because social controls prevents us from committing crime

When controls breakdown or weaken, deviance is the likely results

The "bond" consists of:

1. attachment; 2. commitment; 3. involvement; 4. belief

The problem is the theory assumes the only bonding is to "conventional society"

Here it assumes there is a clearn larger set of values, and beliefs. Gang members are bonded to these values of family and money. Their concept of family is not conventional nor is their means of obtaining money. 

Social Learning Theory

Neither the motivation for crime nor socilization outcomes are constant

Conforming and delinqent behavior are outcomes of variation in the socilization process that results in differential social reinforcements for conventional and devian behavior

Deliquency is the result of a direct socilization of deviances

Deliquent/criminal behaviors are encouraged and rewarded by the gang

The anticipation rewards outweigh the potential cost or punishments

The groups provide a setting in which the attitudes, motives, and rationalization that tolerates or encourage delinqently are learned

Experiences in conventional contects (school, family) many provide little positive reinforcements for conventional behavior

Experiences in delinquent contexts may provide a lot of positive reinforcement for deviant behavior

Control Balance Theory

An act regarded by most others as inappropriate or unacceptable might allow that person to alter the balance of control she/he normally exercises relative that which she/he normally experiences, even if temporary

Deviant motivation is made up of the three parts:

Desire for automomy

The simutaneous exercise of external control and escape from control over oneself

Control ratio- constraint

Criminal Justice System Response to Murder

Aggessive police enforcement can magnify dangers and even public mistrust- both sides are intrinsically linked

Requiring aggressive crime-fighting strategies put the police in a difficult and dangerous situations

Both the police and the suspect see one antoher as the enemy: minor confritation can lead to an escilation of violence

"Zero" tolerance policies often target neighborhoods, albeit unintentionally.

This places the police in confrentational situations with marginalized groups.

Such groups have reduced legitimacy of the police, especially African Americans

The Mandates to "clean the streets" may produce over zealous poice officers with perceptions of unlimited power

As punishments for crime becomes harsher, criminals are becoming more resistant

According to Levin & Fox, the culture of policing has fostered the level of hostility between cops and criminals

Use of "war" rhetoric; combat terminology

Criminal Justice Response continued

Underaggresive crime- fighting strategies, it becomes difficult for the police to seperate the good guys from the bad guys

Given all the crimes newely identified as needing than aggressive strategy, the segement of the population consisting of bad guys is increasing

The member of law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty has decreased buty the number of assaults and aggravated assaults has increased

To many police serve a significant role-that to security and protection

70% of adults believe the police are doing a good job

The others the police represent forces of oppression

Particularly true of minorities

Percieve themselves at war with the police

Boston's Chief of Police has moved away from war and combat rhetoric and mentality

Emphasize community policing, ethics and professionalism

The focus is on cooperation instead of confrintation

The number of complaints against the police are at a record low

Effective Police Departments

Affirmitive action has resultd in an increase in the member of minority and female police officers

Recently, affirmative action has eroded with emphasis on test scores

Raises the question: will test scores produce more effective police departments

Most civil distirubances, homicides, and resistance to police resulting in assaults or police shootings are due to confritation with African Americans

A reduction in these phenomena would require a long-term responses aimed to giving improverished African Americans a real sense of hope for the future.

This should also increase the legitimacy of the police

Effective Policing Continued

There is a need to reduce the perception among some that the police force is an occupying structure, an armed agency of a racist white power.

Fox & Thomas conducted research that strongly suggested that people's perceptions of police burtality and corruption depends on the racial identity of the officer

The charge of police racism is less likely to occur when an African American officer is present