In recent years, cases such as those of Susan Smith and Andrea Yates, both of whom drowned their young children, and Melissa Drexler, who left her newborn baby in a bathroom during her prom, have highlighted the emerging problem of mothers who kill their young. Although these high-profile cases have generated considerable attention, they are not isolated incidents. Each year, hundreds of mothers kill their children in the United States.

Hoping to shed light on what motivates mothers to kill their children, Michelle Oberman, a DePaul University College of Law professor and co-author Cheryl L. Meyer, an associate professor of psychology at Wright State University, use research to expose the forces that contribute to these mothers’ actions. “Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the ‘Prom Mom,’” identifies clear patterns among the cases of women who kill their children and explains why some women commit these acts. The book will be in bookstores this month.

“The crime of infanticide is committed by mothers who cannot parent their children under the circumstances dictated by their unique position in place and time,” said Oberman. “This book attempts to identify clear distinctions among the cases of contemporary women who commit infanticide and to provide some understanding of what motivates them. We also aim to identify intervention strategies that might be helpful in preventing the deaths of other children in the future.”

Oberman and Meyer extracted their findings from 219 cases involving women who killed their children in the United States between January 1990 and December 1999. They found that the average age of the women in the sample was 19.3 and that women from all varieties of socioeconomic, ethnic and religious backgrounds committed these crimes. They also identified five major patterns associated with women who kill their children--patterns that encompass a wide array of social, cultural, environmental and individual variables.

They include:

· Purposeful with the mother acting alone; this category included women who killed their children while suffering from postpartum psychosis or other mental illnesses.

· Ignored pregnancy; women in this category either denied or concealed their pregnancies. All committed neonaticide and most were juveniles.

· Abuse; this category includes mothers who killed their children during a physical assault. Often the alleged purpose of the assault was not to kill the children but instead to discipline.

· Neglect; these mothers did not purposely kill their children but either failed to attend to the children’s basic needs or were irresponsible in their reaction to the children’s behavior.

· Assisted/Coerced; a case was included in this category if the mother killed the child, or if her partner—generally a romantic partner—did the killing and the mother was charged with the murder or a lesser crime.

The book also gives specific case studies describing the circumstances in which some women killed their children, and it considers solutions and intervention strategies that provide an adequate response to this issue.

“By providing a contextual understanding of the reasons why women may be moved to kill their children, we hope to make possible more meaningful policies, well-trained intervention strategies and more comprehensive evaluations of these cases when they arise,” said Oberman.

Note to Editors: Copies of the “Mothers Who Kill Their Children” can be obtained by faxing requests to Staci Shands at NYU Press, 212/995-3833. Michelle Oberman can be reached at 312-362-8151.