A history of infanticide in Britain, c. 1600 to the present / Anne-Marie Kilday.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kilday, Anne-Marie, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Infanticide--Great Britain--History.

Infanticide.

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

x, 338 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

This work provides a detailed history of infanticide in mainland Britain from 1600 to the modern era for the first time. It examines continuity and change in the nature and characteristics of new-born child murder in Scotland, England and Wales over a span of more than four centuries. In addition to offering a comparative analysis of the types of individuals suspected of the offence, and a detailed appreciation of the different ways in which the crime was carried out, the work also exposes the broad nexus of causal factors which underpinned its enactment. In addition, it investigates the evolving attitude in social, medical and legal contexts to the killing of infants in Britain over a substantial time period. Thus the work as a whole is both compelling and innovative as it provides the reader with much more than a mere history of infanticide. It contributes much to our understanding of criminal history, gender history, legal history, medical history and social history in its analyses of the different contexts allied to the offence. It does this also through its exploration of the complex characteristics of accusers, commentators and perpetrators across cultures, borders and time. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Investigating Infanticide - An Enduring Phenomenon 1

2 The Archetype of Infanticide in the Early Modern Period 23

3 Murderous Mothers and the Extended Network of Shame 51

4 Monsters of Inhumanity? Methods of Infant Disposal 77

5 The Pendulum of Opinion: Changing Attitudes to Infanticide 111

6 Explaining Infanticide: Motives for Murder? 151

7 The Modern Debate: Getting Away With Murder? 183.

ISBN:

9780230547070

0230547079

OCLC:

856983038