Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Predictors of Infanticide

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

  • 30 Accesses

Synonyms

Filicide; Neonaticide; Progenicide

Definition

Infanticide is the intentional murder of a child under one year of age.

Introduction

One of the fundamental principles of evolution is that traits that enhance the survival and reproductive success of an individual are passed to offspring. Over time traits that have a selective advantage may become adaptations. These adaptations serve a special purpose and are designed to solve problems of survival and reproduction (Buss 2015). Infanticide is the intentional murder of a child under one year of age (Marks 2009). On the surface, murdering an infant seems like an evolutionary conundrum. That is, it seems to violate the idea that adaptations enhance reproductive success. The question becomes, can infanticide have an evolutionary function? Can it ever be beneficial to kill one’s own child? This section will address predictors of infanticide and whether infanticide may be an adaptation.

Seminal research by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson (1980...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Beaulieu, D. A., & Bugental, D. (2008). Contingent parental investment: An evolutionary framework for understanding early interaction between mothers and children. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 249–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.01.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blurton Jones, N. (2016). Demography and evolutionary ecology of Hadza hunter-gatherers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, D. M. (2015). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ciani, A. S. C., & Fontanesi, L. (2012). Mothers who kill their offspring: Testing evolutionary hypothesis in a 110-case Italian sample. Child Abuse and Neglect, 36, 519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cousins, A. J., & Porter, T. (2017). Darwinian perspectives on women’s progenicide. In M. L. Fisher (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of women and competition (pp. 553–573). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • d’Orban, P. T. (1979). Women who kill their children. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 560–571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1980). Discriminative parental solicitude: A biological perspective. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 42, 277–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gauthier, D. K., Chaudoir, N. K., & Forsyth, C. J. (2003). A sociological analysis of maternal infanticide in the United States, 1984–1996. Deviant Behavior, 24(4), 393–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herman-Giddens, M. E., Smith, J. B., Mittal, M., Carlson, M., & Butts, J. D. (2003). Newborns killed or left to die by a parent. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 289, 1425–1429.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. B. (1999). Mother nature: Maternal instincts and how they shape the human species. New York: Ballantine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, R. S., Kilstrom, N., Kraybill, E. N., & Loda, F. (1978). Antecedents of child abuse and neglect in premature infants: A prospective study in a newborn intensive care unit. Pediatrics, 61, 629–635.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H. S., & Gangestad, S. W. (2005). Life history theory and evolutionary psychology. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 68–95). Hoboken: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, R. L. (1995). The foraging spectrum: diversity in hunter-gatherer lifeways. Washington, DC: Smithonian Institution Presss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler, P. K., Manhart, L. E., & Lafferty, W. E. (2008). Abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education and the initiation of sexual activity and teen pregnancy. Journal of Adolescent Health, 42(4), 344–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koskivirta, A. (2017). Crimes of desperation: Poverty-related filicides in 1810–1860. Journal of Finnish Studies, 20, 97–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, K. L., & Greaves, R. D. (2010). Synchrony between growth and reproductive patterns in human females: Early investment in growth among Pumé foragers. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 141, 235–244. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.21139.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kunz, J., & Bahr, S. J. (1996). A profile of parental homicide against children. Journal of Family Violence, 11, 347–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levay, S., Baldwin, J., & Baldwin, J. (2015). Discovering human sexuality. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, N. E. (1987). Differential child care in three Tibetan communities: Beyond son preference. Population and Development Review, 13, 281–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lightcap, J. L., Kurland, J. A., & Burgess, R. L. (1982). Child abuse: A test of some predictions from evolutionary theory. Ethology and Sociobiology, 3, 61–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luke, B., & Brown, M. B. (2007). Maternal risk factors for potential maltreatment deaths among healthy singleton and twin infants. Twin Research and Human Genetics: The official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies, 10(5), 778–785.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lunn, P. G. (1985). Maternal nutrition and lactational infertility: The baby in the driving seat. In J. Dobbing (Ed.), Nestle nutrition workshop series (pp. 41–53). New York: Vevey/Raven Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marks, M. (2009). Infanticide. Psychiatry, 8(1), 10–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Overpeck, M. D., Brenner, R. A., Trumble, A. C., Trifiletti, L. B., & Berendes, H. W. (1998). Risk factors for infant homicide in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 339(17), 1211–1216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panter-Brick, C., Lotstein, D. S., & Ellison, P. T. (1993). Seasonality of reproductive function and weight loss in rural Nepali women. Human Reproduction, 8, 684–690.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peipert, J. F., Madden, T., Allsworth, J. E., & Secura, G. M. (2012). Preventing unintended pregnancies by providing no-cost contraception. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 120(6), 1291–1297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puffer, R., & Serrano, C. (1973). Patterns of mortality in childhood. Washington, DC: PAHO/WHO Scientific Publication Number 262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam-Hornstein, E. (2011). Report of maltreatment as a risk factor for injury death a prospective birth cohort study. Child Maltreatment, 16, 163–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sauer, R. (1978). Infanticide and abortion in nineteenth-century Britain. Population Studies, 32(1), 81–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheper-Hughes, N. (1984). Infant mortality and infant care: Cultural and economicconstraints on nurturing in Northeast Brazil. Social Science Medicine, 19, 535–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taguchi, H. (2007). Maternal filicide in Japan: Analyses of 96 cases and future directions for prevention. Psychiatria et Neurologia Japonica, 109(2), 110–127.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Willführ, K. P., & Gagnon, A. (2013). Are stepparents always evil? Parental death, remarriage, and child survival in demographically saturated Krummhörn (1720–1859) and expanding Québec (1670–1750). Biodemography and Social Biology, 59(2), 191–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Science, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT, USA

    Alita Cousins

Authors
  1. Alita Cousins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alita Cousins .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Kevin M. Kniffin

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Cousins, A. (2019). Predictors of Infanticide. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2312-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2312-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation