Getting away with murder? Puerperal insanity, infanticide and the defence plea

Murderous Motherhood: Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy in 1990s Crime Fiction

“…Although prosecutors speculated about MSbP in the Hoyt case, for example, she received no reduced sentence or hospitalization. MSbP failed to echo the history of infanticide, in which puerperal insanity became an effective defense against the crime (Marland). The family courts, which did not need to pass judgment in the same way, leaned slightly more toward a psychiatric model in which perpetrators could be cured.…”

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

“…Pleas of temporary derangement while suffering from puerperal mania became key features of defence pleas in numerous infanticide cases during the nineteenth century, and accounts of such cases were devoured by an avid press readership (Andrews, 2002;Eigen, 1995;Marland, 2002;Quinn, 2002;Smith, 1981). Pleas of temporary derangement while suffering from puerperal mania became key features of defence pleas in numerous infanticide cases during the nineteenth century, and accounts of such cases were devoured by an avid press readership (Andrews, 2002;Eigen, 1995;Marland, 2002;Quinn, 2002;Smith, 1981).…”

“…The risk of infanticide caused huge anxiety, so much so that women who had suffered from puerperal insanity in previous confinements were often admitted to asylums as a precaution when they again fell pregnant. Pleas of temporary derangement while suffering from puerperal mania became key features of defence pleas in numerous infanticide cases during the nineteenth century, and accounts of such cases were devoured by an avid press readership (Andrews, 2002; Eigen, 1995; Marland, 2002; Quinn, 2002; Smith, 1981). Jones reported that 10 per cent of cases of puerperal insanity and 14 per cent of women suffering from lactational insanity attempted to murder their infants.…”

Parental Child Murder and Child Abuse in Anglo-American Legal System

“…Both legal and medical practitioners held naturalistic, deterministic views of female crimes, and consequently, criminal justice professionals surrendered the notions of female criminal responsibility to the biological determinism of the medical model. The question of female criminal responsibility were addressed in the pathological terms of its lack, especially as it pertained to such extreme and seemingly unnatural acts such as maternal infanticide (Jackson, 1996(Jackson, , 2002Marland, 2002;Rose, 1986;Smith, 1981;Ward, 2002).…”