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Filicide, the killing of a child by a parent, is one of the only crimes committed by women and men in roughly equal numbers. Women's violence against their children, however, more profoundly confounds common understandings of the links between gender and family violence, leading to its ambivalent treatment within the media. When men kill their children, they are usually characterised as either monsters or as sad, failed men. When women kill their children, they are usually represented as bad mothers or mad mothers suffering under the burdens of the pathological female body. In both cases, a mental illness/distress lens is common, though how it manifests is inflected by gender. This chapter examines recent Australian news representations of maternal filicide-suicide. Focussing on the mental illness/distress frame in news, it examines the ideological work this frame does in decontextualising and de-gendering maternal filicide, framing women's mental illness/distress in ‘psychocentric’ terms that strip it of political or social significance and subjecting it to an individualised lens that obscures the gendered aetiologies of women's use of violence.

A parent who continuously physically abuses her/his child doesn't aim to kill the child but commits an accidental filicide in a more violent outburst of anger. Fatal abuse deaths are prevented by recognition of signs of battering in time. Out of 200 examined intra-familial filicides, 23 (12%) were caused by child battering and 13 (7%) by continuous battering. The medical and court records of the victim and the perpetrator were examined. The perpetrator was the biological mother and the victim was male in 69 per cent of the cases. The abused children were either younger than one year or from two-and-a-half to four years old. Risk factors of the victim (being unwanted, premature birth, separation from the parent caused by hospitalization or custodial care, being ill and crying a lot) and the perpetrator (personality disorder, low socioeconomic status, chaotic family conditions, domestic violence, isolation, alcohol abuse) were common. The injuries caused by previous battering were mostly soft tissue injuries in head and limbs and head traumas and the battering lasted for days or even an year. The final assault was more violent and occurred when the parent was more anxious, frustrated or left alone with the child. The perpetrating parent was diagnosed as having a personality disorder (borderline, narcissistic or dependent) and often substance dependence (31%). None of them were psychotic. Authorities and community members should pay attention to the change in child's behavior and inexplicable injuries or absence from daycare. Furthermore if the parent is immature, alcohol dependent, have a personality disorder and is unable to cope with the demands the small child entails in the parent's life, the child may be in danger.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the treatment experiences of adult male perpetrators of filicide within prison therapeutic communities (TCs).

Participants took part in semi-structured interviews in order to capture their treatment experiences. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Five superordinate themes (therapeutic process; acceptance; insight; relationships; and barriers) and ten subordinate themes were identified. All themes were pertinent to understanding the participants’ experiences of TC treatment. The discussion provides reflections about the findings, contrasts them to psychological literature, along with suggestions for clinical practice and future research.

This research addressed a dearth of published literature within the area of male filicide and available treatment interventions.

This study aims to synthesise the available literature on the phenomenon of infanticide within the context of postpartum psychosis from a novel perspective using critical interpretive synthesis (CIS). The study placed its focus on the environmental aspects involved in the phenomenon of postpartum psychosis where the outcome was infanticide, as well as the chosen method of inflicting death.

CIS is a reviewing method that synthesises existing literature into a coherent frame with the exploration of literature at its core. CIS results in a natural critique of the body of literature and was critical to the study and its findings. The study ultimately found five synthetic constructs related to environmental aspects and method of inflicting death.

These included prior psychiatric history and care, demographics of perpetrators, perceptions on motherhood, profile on victims such as age and the method of death and, finally, the presence of “warning behaviour”. Reflections on the current state of the literature formed an important part of the study and enabled the authors to make recommendations for future research.

The age of the literature acts as a limitation to the study, there is a need for updated to research to inform our current historical context. In addition, most of the included studies was based in developed countries which may impact on generalisability. The aim of he study was not to include an exhaustive body of literature, thus other relevant literature may have not been included. Some included studies did not solely focus on the concept of infanticide within the context of postpartum psychosis. Although efforts were made to ensure rigour, it is accepted that different researchers may come to different conclusion in inherently qualitative means of enquiry such as CIS. These included prior psychiatric history and care, demographics of perpetrators, perceptions on motherhood, profile on victims such as age and the method of death and, finally, the presence of “warning behaviour”. Reflections on the current state of the literature formed an important part of the study and enabled the authors to make recommendations for future research.

The study has not been published previously and all sources are credited. This study made a contribution by indicating important misconceptions about motherhood and the demography associated with infanticide in postpartum psychosis. It also highlighted the need for updated empirical research that may have implications for policy and practice