Looks like in cases where the parent kills themselves after the kids, there are more male perpetrators.

Interestingly, most of the children killed are male, and most of the offenders are male, according to the bureau of justice statistics. If the child is killed by someone other than a parent, those offenders are 81% male.

Women killing their kids is such a horrifying thing to us, that it must get more press, or we remember the incidences more strongly.

There. Right there, in bold is probably the most illuminating thing you've said in a long time Radar. This is also a likely reason for the disproportionate level of interest the media takes in female infanticides. In the UK, though more fathers kill their children than do mothers, there is more coverage in the media of those mothers than of murdering fathers. If the father's crime is particularly violent, the children's fate particularly heart-rending, or contains enough salacious details like a supposed affair, or messy divorce, or even better, if it's an honour killing with pizazz, the media is all over it. But most of the fathers who kill their children warrant little more than a headline in the local rag.

A woman though? A woman who kills her baby? Well that just about flies in the face if everything we believe ourselves to be. The trouble is Radar, that not all mothers have that sacred bond, that glowing line mystically connecting mother and child. It just doesn't happen for some. And that's a hell of a lot more common than you might think. Now for some of those new mum's that bond will be established, just a little later and with a little counselling, or support. For some it doesn't. Is her crime still more heinous than his?

And post-partum depression isn't an excuse it's a medical condition. That it might be misused as an excuse in some cases doesn't stop it being true in others. I'm a woman, I get the hormones thing, i understand; but I don't understand that level of hormonal flux, nor ever will, unless I have a child. That woman's body grew another person you don't think that's going to have serious chemical implications in her body? So much of what we do and think is governed by chemical activity in the brain.

This is something I've tried to explain to my friends without children, mostly to no avail. The hormones, they do any number of things without my consent. My boobs leak when I hear my baby cry. That is a physical, chemical, hormonal reaction that is completely out of my control. If the chemicals became imbalanced, who knows what I'd feel? I'm certain I'd have no say in it, one way or the other.

Post Partum Depression is a real thing. It is a valid excuse for extreme behavior in many woman. It is not a fantasy.

It's very humbling to come to understand how much of what you think and feel and do is controlled by chemicals/hormones.

Wasn't Andrea Yates hearing voices? Clearly mentally ill. The mentally ill need treatment, not punishment. Kept away from society for the rest of their life? Probably necessary also.

Yea, when I read about the details of that case it makes me cringe. It was avoidable. It may be a larger symptom of our failed/failing mental health safety net in this country. It is going to get worse. Our state just announced planned cuts to an already underfunded system. Sad. We are going to see many more of the mentally ill end up in a prison system without treatment.

What is apparent: women killing their children is not misogyny. It is a real problem that is apparently only recently been taken seriously. So much for a popular myth that women would not kill their kids due to some magical or inherited bond. Two threats to a child’s life come from the genetic mother and from step fathers.

Meanwhile, the Economist summary of this problem also noted another fact. These deaths most often occur among the lower classes. Of course, some will cry racist or double standard or whatever. The fact remains from research – this is where parents tends to be the greatest threat to a less than 5 year old child’s life expectancy.

I read it every two weeks as well. it is not a medical journal and cannot support your notion that you have any understanding of the issue because you read it. As with most things.

I don't believe insanity is a valid defense or excuse and neither is being mentally retarded or chemically imbalanced. If she was crazy, fine. Don't tell her it's the electric chair. Tell her it's a roller coaster. Either way she's got to go.

The only thing I've ever seen you display a firm understanding of is deep frying a turkey, so you may want to re-think your attack on tw.

But those two aren't the only options, consider the two-fold benefits of Soylent Green.

Good point. I would consider it for illegal aliens but the mentally ill need treatment.

First off, Radar that's totally fucked up. If someone doesn't have control over their faculties and actions then they cannot be held responsible for them.

Secondly, you can't not tell her its the electric chair, because you cannot legally execute someobody who is not aware of what's happening and why. There was a famous case about a decade ago (I can't recall the details) in which a severely mentally disturbed man was convicted of murder. He had, I believe, a very severe form of schizophrenia whch was partially controllable by medication. For some reason, I think he had no health insurance, though probably it was as much to do with his inability to function alone, he had stopped taking his meds and ended up killing someone.

This man was really out of it. He was sentenced to death and there was a legal requirement that he be medicated prior to the execution in order that he understand that he was being executed and why. After all, it is a punishment. If he is out of it, then he is unaware of his death and there is no punishment, merely a death.

Personally, I was really upset by the reports of that case. It stayed with me for a long time. Somewhere along the line, someone should have been ensuring that this young man stay on his medication. Someone should have been ensuring that he had somewhere safe and stable to stay. It is no surprise that when we abandon the mentally ill to the tender mercies of Care in the Community, many become a threat to themselves and some to themselves and others. That young man, just like the woman who was hearing voices, was executed because the system failed them.