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Children Killed by One Parent: Killed by Mothers



71% of Children Killed by One Parent are Killed by Their Mothers; 60% of Victims are Boys

By Mark B. Rosenthal

July 23, 2008

In 1994, Susan Smith's murder of her sons Michael and Alex made national headlines for months. A couple of factors explain why the Susan Smith case received such high-profile coverage. One factor was Smith's overt racism. Smith initially made up a story about having been carjacked by an African-American man in order to explain the disappearance of her sons. The media, all too ready to believe her horror story, had made it front page news all over the country. Having covered the story of the "carjacking" and the boys' disappearance for 9 days, the media couldn't easily drop the story when it was discovered that Smith had actually strapped her three-year old and one-year old sons into their carseats and then driven her car into a lake to drown them. Furthermore, when it came out that Smith's reason for killing the boys was because she dreamed of marrying a wealthy man who had told her he had no interest in "ready-made" family, the resulting revulsion by the general public helped sell newspapers and increase media ratings.

But when a mother murders her children, it's rare for the news media to react with such high-profile coverage. It's far more common for the press to do high-profile news stories on murdering fathers like Manuel Gehring, who in 2003 killed his children and buried them off an interstate in Ohio, or Mark Castillo, who in 2008 drowned his children in a Baltimore hotel room bathtub before attempting to take his own life.

TV shows and movies likewise hardly ever tell stories of abusive mothers or mothers who kill their children, leaving the viewing public with the misimpression that fathers are a far greater danger to their children than mothers. TV shows and movies are also far more likely to portray girls as victims of maltreatment than boys.

However data from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHHS) tells a completely opposite story regarding who abuses children. The DHHS publishes an annual report called "Child Maltreatment", and each year's report contains a table detailing the parental status of the perpetrator(s).

Shown below is an analysis of data drawn from the "Child abuse and neglect" and the "Child fatality" tables from each of the DHHS' "Child Maltreatment" reports between 2001 and 2006.

The DHHS calculates the percentages of perpetrators in various categories such as Mother, Father, Foster Parent, Daycare Staff, Friend or Neighbor, etc. The percentages are often used to argue whether, on average, it is fathers or mothers that pose a greater risk of harm to their children. But when trying to determine which parent, on average poses the greater danger, categories like Foster Parent, Daycare Staff, Friend or Neighbor, etc. are entirely irrelevant. The calculations below factor out those categories to produce a more accurate picture. The resulting calculations show the percentage of child abuse and deaths caused by one parent acting either alone or in concert with someone other than the child's other parent.

The DHHS data shows that of children abused by one parent between 2001 and 2006, 70.6% were abused by their mothers, whereas only 29.4% were abused by their fathers.

And of children who died at the hands of one parent between 2001 and 2006, 70.8% were killed by their mothers, whereas only 29.2% were killed by their fathers.

Furthermore, contrary to media portrayals that leave the viewer with the impression that only girls are ever harmed, boys constituted fully 60% of child fatalities. (Table 4-3, p. 71, Child Maltreatment 2006, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm06/cm06.pdf, reports that 675 boys died in 2006 as compared to 454 girls).

The pervasive media bias cannot help but influence judges. Thus the newspapers, TV shows, and movies that promote this bias must bear a significant part of the responsibility for child abuse and deaths of children at the hands of violent mothers.

Data from U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services "Child Maltreatment" reports, 2001-2006*
Victims by Parental Status of Perpetrators
Child abuse and neglect Child fatalities
2001-2006 2001-2006
Mother Only 1,452,099 1,704
Mother and Other 222,836 565
Mother total (alone or with someone other than the father) 1,674,935 2269
Father Only 661,129 859
Father and Other 37,836 77
Father total (alone or with someone other than the mother) 698,965 936
Both total (Involving one parent acting alone or in concert with someone not the child's other parent) 2,373,900 3,205

Percent of cases involving one parent acting either alone or in concert with someone other than the child's other parent
Mother Involved But Not Father 70.6% 70.8%
Father Involved But Not Mother 29.4% 29.2%

http://www.breakingthescience.org/SimplifiedDataFromDHHS.php
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1035252 tn?1427227833
I know, it's very bizarre...and no I don't remember where I read it, I just remember that my SIL had a mild case of PPD after her son was born, but now after she just gave birth to a girl she has no signs of it recurring even though it generally DOES recur...and I had no depression whatsoever when my daughter was born but I've already had a serious case of depression with this pregnancy (expecting a boy any day now) and I'm quite concerned about the possibility of PPD and have already put my family on alert for the signs.

I wish I could give you the name of the article I read but I know that it's a more and more commonly accepted risk factor for PPD to be expecting a male child. And that's a good question about the hormones, and one I've been wondering about ever since I discovered we were expecting a boy...granted, my life has been less roses and peaches this time around than it was when I was pregnant with my daughter, but I've been SO much more severely depressed with this pregnancy whereas with my daughter I was actually more happy and tractable than I normally am...nothing could phase me. I wish they would do some research on this, it might help them predict PPD more accurately and know what women to watch, although that raises problems of it's own.

and yes Adgal you're absolutely right I meant to make the delineation between PPD and PPP because they're quite different although the mechanism is the same.
Helpful - 0
377493 tn?1356502149
I had a boy and also am still dealing with a pretty severe case of PPD.  My son is 5 months old now.  There was never a second when I though of hurting him...I would have killed myself first.  I know PPD is serious, but I believe the cases that actually become diagnosed as Post Partum Phycosis are fairly rare.  I know it happens, but I would hate to see it used as a defense except in rare situations.  Ashelen, my Dr. (a phsyciatrist who specializes in PPD) told me that  statistically  PPD is more common in women that give birth to boys.  They don't know why.
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Avatar universal
I actually didn't know that. I wonder if it could partly be something as the reaction of sometype of hormonal leakage across the placental barrier.  Do you remember where you read about this?
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1035252 tn?1427227833
I wonder if there's a link between this number and post-partum depression? Incidentally, the number of women who suffer from PPD seems to be higher in women who have recently had a male child as opposed to a female child...
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