Department of General Psychology, Laboratory of Forensic Evolutionary Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
Child Abuse Negl. 2012 Jun;36(6):519-27. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.05.001. Epub 2012 Jul 3.
This research aimed to identify incidents of mothers in Italy killing their own children and to test an adaptive evolutionary hypothesis to explain their occurrence.
110 cases of mothers killing 123 of their own offspring from 1976 to 2010 were analyzed. Each case was classified using 13 dichotomic variables. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical cluster analysis were performed both for cases and variables, and significant differences between clusters were analyzed.
The Italian sample of neonaticides (killings of children within the first day of life) was found to satisfy all evolutionary predictions for an evolved behavioral, emotional and motivational pattern to increase fitness, showing a consistent profile for offending mothers. Relatively young, poor women with no partner kill their offspring non-violently, either directly or through abandonment, and they attempt to conceal the body. These women have no psychopathologies and never attempt suicide after killing their children. All neonaticide cases fall in a single cluster that is distinct from all other offspring killings by mothers. Infanticide (killing of children within the first year of life) and filicide (killing of children after the first year of life) do not significantly differ according to any of the variables measured. The common profile of mothers who have committed infanticide or filicide includes psychopathology, suicide or attempted suicide after killing their children, violent killing of their victims, and no attempt to conceal the victims' bodies. These results suggest that maternal infanticide and filicide represent an improper functioning of adaptation, and their profile are much more variable than those of neonaticide offenders.
Our study confirms that only neonaticide is an adaptive reproductive disinvestment, possibly evolved in the remote past, to increase the biological fitness of the mother by eliminating an unwanted newborn and saving resources for future offspring born in better conditions. Neonaticide is shown to be clearly distinct from infanticide and filicide and therefore should be approached, prevented, and judged differently.
本研究旨在识别意大利母亲杀害亲生子女的事件，并检验一个适应性进化假说，以解释其发生的原因。
分析了 1976 年至 2010 年间 110 例母亲杀害 123 名亲生子女的案例。每个案例都使用 13 个二分变量进行分类。对案例和变量进行描述性统计和层次聚类分析，并分析聚类之间的显著差异。
意大利的新生儿杀害（出生后第一天内杀害儿童）样本满足了所有进化预测，即一种进化的行为、情感和动机模式，以提高适应性，为犯罪母亲展示了一致的特征。相对年轻、贫穷、没有伴侣的女性以非暴力的方式杀害自己的子女，要么直接杀害，要么遗弃，并试图隐藏尸体。这些女性没有精神病理学，在杀害孩子后也从未试图自杀。所有的新生儿杀害案件都属于一个单一的聚类，与所有其他由母亲杀害的子女案件明显不同。婴儿杀害（出生后第一年杀害儿童）和杀子（出生后第一年杀害儿童）在任何测量的变量上都没有显著差异。犯有婴儿杀害或杀子罪的母亲的共同特征包括精神病理学、在杀害孩子后自杀或试图自杀、暴力杀害受害者、以及不试图隐藏受害者的尸体。这些结果表明，母亲的婴儿杀害和杀子行为代表了适应性的不当运作，其特征比新生儿杀害罪犯的特征更加多变。
我们的研究证实，只有新生儿杀害是一种适应性的生殖投资减少，可能是在遥远的过去进化而来的，通过消除一个不需要的新生儿并为未来在更好条件下出生的后代节省资源，来提高母亲的生物适应性。新生儿杀害与婴儿杀害和杀子行为明显不同，因此应该以不同的方式对待、预防和评判。
