Infanticide Act 1938

2009

This article examines the impact of the Children Act 1908 on longstanding concerns that foster or informally 'adoptive' parents were uniquely likely to murder the children in their care. Making particular reference to the last two high-profile cases of 'baby-farmers' tried for homicide on the Welsh and English Assize circuits (in 1907 and 1919, respectively) it argues that the infant life protection provisions in the 1908 Act had a dramatic and immediate impact on such prosecutions, removing the automatic presumption of malice in cases where fostered or adopted children died in suspicious circumstances.

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2001

2016

I. INTRODUCTION The law of infanticide has been described as “a particularly dark corner of the criminal law”.1 This description relates not so much to the nefarious character of the offence as to the hidden nature of the doctrine, which is seldom litigated. The recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Borowiec2 provides a useful window into the law governing infanticide which, in the common law jurisdictions in which it exists, provides both a discrete offence and a partial defence to women who kill their infant children while suffering from the effects of childbirth. The decision provides a valuable account of the origins and legislative purpose of the infanticide doctrine as it has developed within Canadian law which has close parallels to infanticide as it has emerged within New Zealand criminal law.

Paper given at the Australian Social welfare History Workshop, University of Tasmania, 10-11 February 2014

This paper explores the outcomes for women on trial for newborn child murder at the Old Bailey, 1750-1830. Previous historical consideration of the phenomenon of newborn child murder focuses on the socio-economic experience of the unmarried mother, tending to overlook the treatment in law of mothers suspected of murder. Whilst extensive studies have explored local assize cases, few have considered the Old Bailey trials over any significant period of time. Focusing on the Proceedings of the trials, this study takes into account each case heard during 1750 to 1830, exploring whether legal changes instituted during the period had any effect on the incidence of guilty verdicts. The time period studied covers trials heard under the 1624 Stuart Statute and the transition to the use of Lord Ellenborough's 1803 Act, which both legitimated judicial conventions already in practice, and allowed for the imprisonment of those found guilty of concealing a birth, which was previously unpunished. Newspaper reports of the trials give a fuller picture of the social context in which the verdicts were reached, facilitating the view of a consistent picture of the treatment of the defendant, the use of the law, and the reasons for a guilty verdict. The paper challenges the suggestion that legal attitudes to unmarried mothers changed between the early eighteenth and nineteenth century, despite the reinvention of the concept of the culpability of the unmarried mother, and establishes that the application of capital punishment remained consistent, used only for the most provocative cases.

Medical History, 1997

Women and the Criminal Justice System: failing victims and offenders?, 2018

This chapter considers the unusual case where a woman is suspected of killing her newborn baby following a secret pregnancy and birth. The research on what we know about the circumstances and incidence of what has been termed 'neonaticide' is explored. The complexities of these cases in terms of their circumstances and the vulnerability of women who conceal their pregnancies is highlighted. Following this, the difficulties, from a legal perspective, that arise when seeking to prosecute women for homicide when their babies die following an unassisted concealed birth are considered. What we know about current criminal justice practice in these cases is also explored. Unfortunately, there is limited research on current criminal justice practice in these cases, and little is therefore known about the approach taken by the police, prosecutors and the courts in cases involving suspected homicides of newborns. The need for further research on the criminal justice response is highlighted, and the appropriateness of criminalising women and girls in these cases, particularly given their unique circumstances of vulnerability, is questioned.

In the early twentieth century, Canadian juries were reluctant to convict mothers who had murdered their newly born children (children who are under one year of age) and would acquit them despite their obvious guilt.