title: Maternal filicide in Turkey.
abstract: Filicide occurs in every socioeconomic stratum around the world. This study was conducted to evaluate motives, psychopathological aspects, and socio-demographic factors of 74 filicide cases of women in Turkey. Mean age of mothers, most of whom committed infanticide, was 26 years, and breakdown of criminal offenses are as follows: "to get rid of unwanted babies" (24.3%), "acute psychotic-type filicide" (21.6%), "fatal child abuse and neglect" (17.6%), "to get revenge" (12.2%), "protect the lonely child from the harm and badness after suicide" (10.8%), and "pity" (9.5%) motives. Results showed that maternal filicide cannot be reduced to only mental instability or environmental factors and indicates deficiencies in the capacity of the mothers' role in connecting with their child and with parenting skills. Finally, with regard to defendants' motives, similar factors that contribute to committing maternal filicide should be considered while making an assessment of the data and determining employee risk groups.
authors: Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kirikkale University, Kirikkale, Turkey.
authors: Salih Murat
authors: SM
authors: Eke
authors: Saba
authors: S
authors: Basoglu
authors: Bulent
authors: B
authors: Bakar
authors: Gokhan
authors: G
authors: Oral
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002676:Child, Unwanted; D005260:Female; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009042:Motivation; D011247:Pregnancy; D011275:Pregnancy, Unwanted; D011902:Rape; D014421:Turkey; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: child homicide; crime; filicide; forensic science; maternal filicide; motive