Study on causes of child-murders/mother suicides

Abstract

Study on causes of child murders mother suicides Chiharu ABE Causes of child murders parent suicides in Japan have been changed along with the socio economic transitions in modern Japan. Objective of the study was to clarify the actual situations and causes of child murders mother suicides, namely concrete ideas to be based when public services for maternal and child well being is examined.Four hundred fifty eight incidents of child murders suicides by parent s or grandparent s extracted from newspaper articles during 1998 to 2007, and child murders mother suicides were analysed mainly. Out of total 458 incidents, 300 incidents 65.5were child murders mother suicides. The average age of the mothers in 2007 36.5 years old was older than that in 1998 33.4 .Main causes of mothers were anxieties of child care, economic problems, and troubles in family.Anxieties of child care had the highest rate. Relatively less economic problems and more anxieties of child care were found among mothers' causes than those of fathers.Evidently, anxieties of child care, continuously increased during the latter half of 1900s, became a main cause of recent child murders mother suicides, while the causes differed by age and more diversified in older age groups. Effective supports of child care have to respond to various needs of mothers.Key words child murder parent suicide, anxiety of child care, supports of child care

Trend of homicide–suicide in Kanagawa Prefecture (Japan): Comparison with western countries

“…Reportedly, the salient factors involved in this crime are child-rearing anxiety, financial problems and mental illness, primarily depression. [14][15][16] The mean age of the children who were killed by their mothers was 4.8 AE 4.2 years, which indicates that most those children died either within one year after birth or before they reached school age. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to devise measures to detect and treat mental disease in mothers raising young children.…”