Neonaticide

ABSTRACT

This study explored the phenomenon of neonaticide, as related to the researcher by nine women incarcerated for this act. The objective of the present study was to develop grounded theory on the subject of neonaticide, implementing data obtained from primary sources. Utilizing two rounds of semi-structured interviews, conducted privately in prisons throughout the United States, individual, familial, and societal factors were investigated in an effort to understand the personal experience of neonaticide, the interpretation of the experience, and integration of the experience into the life of each individual participant. A constellation of behavioral and psychological responses common to each of the nine participants' experience of neonaticide emerged, beginning with the discovery of an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy. This was followed by fear, concealment of the pregnancy, emotional isolation, denial, dissociation, panic, and, finally, the act of neonaticide. Within the context of the present study, the consistency of the behavioral and psychological responses identified as foundational to an act of neonaticide supports an assessment of neonaticide as an impulsive response reflecting the mental status of a woman whose energy has been directed for months at concealing her pregnancy from the world, rather than a premeditated act of rage or aggression toward a newborn. The present study indicates that women of widely varying ages and life circumstances with no criminal history are capable of an act of neonaticide in response to a conflicted pregnancy, emotional isolation, and ineffectual coping strategies.

Key Words:

• Neonaticide
• child murder
• pregnancy denial
• infanticide
• biopsychosociocultural factors