The phylogenetic roots of human lethal violence.

The psychological, sociological and evolutionary roots of conspecific violence in humans are still debated, despite attracting the attention of intellectuals for over two millennia. Here we propose a conceptual approach towards understanding these roots based on the assumption that aggression in mammals, including humans, has a significant phylogenetic component. By compiling sources of mortality from a comprehensive sample of mammals, we assessed the percentage of deaths due to conspecifics and, using phylogenetic comparative tools, predicted this value for humans. The proportion of human deaths phylogenetically predicted to be caused by interpersonal violence stood at 2%. This value was similar to the one phylogenetically inferred for the evolutionary ancestor of primates and apes, indicating that a certain level of lethal violence arises owing to our position within the phylogeny of mammals. It was also similar to the percentage seen in prehistoric bands and tribes, indicating that we were as lethally violent then as common mammalian evolutionary history would predict. However, the level of lethal violence has changed through human history and can be associated with changes in the socio-political organization of human populations. Our study provides a detailed phylogenetic and historical context against which to compare levels of lethal violence observed throughout our history.

Infanticide and the influence of psychoanalysis on Dutch forensic psychiatry in the mid-twentieth century.

This article demonstrates how psychoanalytic thought, especially ideas by Adler, Reik, Deutsch, and Alexander and Staub, informed forensic psychiatry in the Netherlands from the late 1920s. An analysis of psychiatric explanations of the crime of infanticide shows how in these cases the focus of (forensic) medicine and psychiatry shifted from somatic medicine to a psychoanalytic emphasis on unconscious motives. A psychoanalytic vocabulary can also be found in the reports written by forensic psychiatrists and psychologists in court cases in the 1950s. The new psychoanalytic emphasis on unconscious motives implied a stronger focus on the personality of the suspect. This article argues that psychoanalysis accelerated this development in the mid-twentieth century, contributing to the role of the psy-sciences in normalization processes.

Sex selection in late Iberian infant burials: Integrating evidence from morphological and genetic data.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze the infant burials found inside Iberian homes in relation to a possible case of sex selection. METHODS: The study included the remains of 11 infant individuals buried under the 10 houses excavated in the late Iberian village of Camp de les Lloses (Tona, Barcelona, Spain). Sex was determined using genetic analysis. RESULTS: Our results showed that almost all the burials were females. However, the age interval of death was wide enough to weaken the premise of infanticide, and the burials probably represent cases of natural death. DISCUSSION: Infanticide in its different forms has long been argued as an explanation for the infant remains found throughout various burial sites. Many authors thought that infanticide, mainly femicide, was the main method of population control in ancient times. However, there is no anthropological evidence (age distribution and sex analyzed genetically) to support the intentional killing of females in this or in other cases. We hypothesized that there was a positive selection for females to be buried inside the houses, probably related to their benefactor roles.

A lost family-planning regime in eighteenth-century Ceylon.

Based on Dutch colonial registers (thombos), this paper reconstructs fertility for two districts in Ceylon, 1756-68. It overcomes challenges in data quality by establishing the outer bounds of plausible estimates in a series of scenarios. Among these, total fertility rates (TFRs) averaged 5.5 in one district, but only 2.7 in the other. These figures exclude the victims of infanticide, a custom noted in European travelogues between about 1660 and 1820. Sex ratios among children differed depending on the number of older siblings, and overall, 27 per cent of girls are missing in one district and 57 per cent in the other. There was little significant variation either in the TFR or the sex ratio by socio-economic status, suggesting that poverty was not a key factor in motivating infanticides. Instead, we argue that at least parts of Ceylon had a forward-looking culture of family planning in the eighteenth century, which was lost in subsequent decades.

«The child has lived and breathed.¼ Forensic examinations of newborns 1910-1912.

One hundred years ago, forensic examination of deceased infants was not an uncommon task for doctors in Norway. The key questions were whether the infant had been born alive and whether the manner of death could be explained. The decomposition of the corpses, which had often lain hidden long before they were examined, posed a considerable problem. Notwithstanding the known shortcomings in the criteria used for assessment of breathing (the lung flotation test), and the fact that the bodies were often severely decomposed, the lung flotation test and the supposed signs of asphyxiation were used indiscriminately. This absence of association between theoretical knowledge and practice may have had its origin in societal conditions in which clandestine birth and the killing of newborns was not uncommon.

Dead infants and unmarried women--from forensic pathology reports 1910-12.

The lack of access to contraceptives and poor control over their own pregnancies represented a major problem for women 100 years ago. An unwanted pregnancy could lead to social exclusion and loss of paid work, and clandestine births and infanticide thus posed a social problem. A review of the archives of the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine in the period 1910 to 1912 shows that one-fifth of all expert opinions were related to infants and pregnancy. Autopsies performed on children constituted over one-third of all forensic autopsies during this period. Although the reports provide a timely reminder of the value of hard-earned rights in Norway, the lack of control over their own sexuality and unwanted pregnancies are unfortunately still the reality for a large proportion of the world's women.

Mothers who kill: evolutionary underpinnings and infanticide law.

Women who kill their children present a profound challenge to accepted notions of motherhood and the protection offered by mothers to their children. Historically, societies have varied in the sanctions applied to perpetrators of such acts, across both time and place. Where penalties were once severe and punitive for mothers, in modern times some two dozen nations now have infanticide acts that reduce the penalties for mothers who kill their infants. Embedded within these acts are key criteria that relate (a) only to women who are (b) suffering the hormonal or mood effects of pregnancy/lactation at the time of the offence which is (c) usually restricted to within the first year after delivery. Criticisms of infanticide legislation have largely centered on inherent gender bias, misconceptions about the hormonal basis of postpartum psychiatric disorders, and the nexus and contribution of these disorders to the offending in relation to issues of culpability and sentencing. Important differences between female perpetrators relative to the age of the child victim have also highlighted problems in the implementation of infanticide legislation. For example, women who commit neonaticide (murder during the first day of life) differ substantially from mentally ill mothers who kill older children. However, despite these shortcomings, many nations have in recent years chosen to retain their infanticide acts. This article reviews the central controversies of infanticide legislation in relation to current research and fundamental fairness. Using evolutionary psychology as a theoretical framework to organize this discussion, it is argued that infanticide legislation is at best unnecessary and at worst misapplied, in that it exculpates criminal intent and fails to serve those for whom an infanticide defense might otherwise have been intended.

[Criminal superstition, pregnancy and infants at the turn of the 19th century]. / Krimineller Aberglaube um 1900 am Beispiel schwangerer Frauen und kleiner Kinder.

Around 1900, various crimes were still caused by criminal superstition. Criminologists like Hans Gross, Albert Hellwig and August Löwenstimm were engaged in the exploration of this topic aiming at the complete explanation of criminal behaviour linked to superstition. Crimes against pregnant women and infants are particularly good examples to illustrate the problems arising from crimes motivated by superstition. When assessing superstition under scientific and legal aspects, the criminologists applied different approaches, although positivistic rationalization was the most common tendency. In the forensic and legal evaluation of crimes related to superstition the problematical questions were whether the perpetrator was criminally responsible and how the offence was to be legally qualified. In many cases, criminals motivated by superstition were treated with more lenience.

Under the shadow of maternity: birth, death and puerperal insanity in Victorian Britain.

Death and fear of death in cases of puerperal insanity can be linked to a much broader set of anxieties surrounding childbirth in Victorian Britain. Compared with other forms of mental affliction, puerperal insanity was known for its good prognosis, with many women recovering over the course of several months. Even so, a significant number of deaths were associated with the disorder, and a large proportion of sufferers struggled with urges to destroy their infants and themselves. The disorder evoked powerful delusions concerning death, with patients expressing intimations of mortality and longing for death.

Infanticide in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania: documents from four centuries (1570-1842).

In this study we present an unprecedented comprehensive overview of cases of infanticide in the region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century. Using the Faculty of Law's verdict files stored in the University of Rostock's archives, we analysed and evaluated 362 cases. Changes in the prosecution of this crime, in the way the trials were conducted and in the passing of sentences illustrate the judicial conceptions of the academics, as well as being of great social interest. For the almost exclusively female defendants, behavioural patterns occurred repeatedly: shame, confusion and hopelessness triggered concealment of the pregnancy and ultimately the deliberate or negligent killing of the newborn child.

Remaking the medico-legal scene: a social history of the late-Victorian coroner in Oxford.

There have been wide-ranging debates about medicine and the law encapsulated in the figure of the coroner in Victorian England. Recently the historical literature on coroners has been enriched by macro-studies. Despite this important research, the social lives of coroners and their daily interactions remain relatively neglected in standard historical accounts. This article redresses that issue by examining the working life of the coroner for Oxford during the late-Victorian era. Edward Law Hussey kept very detailed records of his time in office as coroner. New research material makes it feasible to trace his professional background, from doctor of the sick poor, to hospital house surgeon and then busy coroner. His career trajectory, personal interactions, and professional disputes, provide an important historical prism illuminating contemporary debates that occupied coroners in their working lives. Hussey tried to improve his medico-legal reach and the public image of his coroner's office by reducing infanticide rates, converting a public mortuary, and acquiring a proper coroner's court. His campaigns had limited success because the social scene in which he worked was complicated by the dominance of health and welfare agencies that resented his role as an expanding arm of the Victorian information state.

Socio-cultural aspects of the high masculinity ratio in India.

The paper aims to explicate those factors accountable for the continuing imbalance in the sex ratio and its further masculinization over the whole of the 20th century. Here it is contended that the traditional practice of female infanticide and the current practice of female foeticide in the contemporary period, especially in the north-west and Hindi-speaking states, have significantly contributed to the high masculinity ratio in India. In addition, increasingly higher survival ratios of male children, particularly from the 1951 census onward, have been the prime reason for a declining proportion of females in the Indian population. As the Indian value system has been imbued with a relatively higher preference for sons, improvements in health facilities have benefited males more than females, giving rise to a highly imbalanced sex ratio in the country. This scenario, however, has steadily tended to alter in favour of greater balance in sex ratio.

[Regulatory evolution of the crime of infanticide]. / Evoluzione normativa del delitto di infanticidio.

The objective of the present study consists of the juridic-anthropological analysis of the infanticide, a phenomenon that nowadays is highly existent within the context of crime-settings. Particular consideration has been given to the legal developments of the infanticide act, which occurred simultaneously with the mutation of the socio-cultural contexts. Because the legislative process of the infanticide act has not evolved since 1981, it was possible to underline the criticisms and the inadequacy of such norm. Indeed, the legal norm has not always been able to provide an exhaustive answer concerning cases of infanticide. The process of humanisation of the law led to the introduction of a legal system, which describes the infanticide act as a condition of material and moral abandonment. This has become uncertain and ambiguous to interpret, risking to relegate the legislative matters of infanticide only to exceptional cases. The current study aims to highlight the criticisms and hypothesised different reform perspectives.

Prosecuting attempted suicides in London: 1891-1913.

A study of 30 cases of attempted suicide tried at the Old Bailey criminal court in London (England) from 1891 to 1913 indicated that having made prior attempts was the only predictor of the severity of the sentence. 22 individuals were tried for murdering or attempting to murder their child and also attempting suicide. None of the murderers but half of the attempted murderers were found not guilty, or guilty then released. Mothers used drowning more than did fathers and were more likely to be found not guilty.

Intensive care 1650: the revival of Anne Greene (c. 1628-59).

On a cold December day in 1650, 22-year-old Anne Greene was hanged in Oxford. When taken down after half an hour, she was found to show signs of life and over the next few days William Petty (1623-87), Thomas Willis (1621-75), Ralph Bathurst (1620-74) and Henry Clerke (1622-87) ministered to her full recovery. She was later pardoned of the charge of infanticide and, with the coffin wherein she had lain as a trophy, went into the country, became the subject not only of a prose and poetic narrative but also of a woodcut. Anne married happily, bore three children and lived until 1659. A combination of low-body temperature and external (pedal) cardiac massage after her failed execution, it is suggested, helped to keep her alive until the arrival of the physicians who had come to make an anatomical dissection but serendipitously won golden opinions.

Filicide-suicide in Chicago, 1870-1930.

Filicide (the killing of a child by a parent) followed by the offender's suicide is a tragic but, fortunately, rare event. The contexts and circumstances surrounding filicide-suicide may provide insight into parental psychology. The authors test several hypotheses about filicide-suicide using a database including incident-level information on 11,018 Chicago homicides during 1870-1930. The results provide some support for the hypothesis of differential risk of suicide following filicide by genetic parents and stepparents and replicate previous research indicating that filicides with multiple victims are more likely to end in the offender's suicide than are filicides with a single victim; parents are more likely to commit suicide following the filicide of an older child than of a younger child; and older parents, relative to younger parents, are more likely to commit suicide following filicide. The discussion situates these results within the existing literature and highlights important directions for future research.