Abdullah Alhassan, Frederico Margarita, Mensah Felix, Bentum Hajara, Wang Yihang, Asare Jennifer Litela
Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Department of Sociology, Haverford College, Haverford, PA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 15;13:928963. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.928963. eCollection 2022.
Consistent with international promulgation on the criminalization of filicide, Ghana's Children's Act 1998 (560) and the Criminal Justice Act criminalizes any form of torture against children. Yet, perpetrators of filicide in Ghana may go unpunished due to the beliefs in cultural norms that justify filicide acts. The cultural narratives of filicide can impede on the application and effectiveness of the laws of filicide.
The study employed a vignette approach to explore the views of 19 adults, who were parents between 69 years of age and 30 years of age, in rural and urban Ghana on the laws of filicide in Ghana and filicide intervention measures. The interviewees were provided with narratives on two different vignettes (developed based on real life cases), followed by semi-structured questions to probe the narratives. The interviews were analyzed following Fraser's narrative thematic analysis procedure.
The study identifies the association between cultural beliefs and the communities' understanding of the concept of filicide. Though community members are aware of the criminalization of filicide acts, the majority of them were not informed about the laws against filicide in Ghana. Addressing filicide cases within the community was the most preferred option for the participants, as they believe that some children, termed "spirit children" (SC), deserve to be killed. Resorting to spiritual intervention from concoction men emerged as the normative pathway to obtain community approval for filicide. Police interventions were considered necessary in non-spiritual related filicides. Community members were only prepared to cooperate with the law in filicide cases if the filicide act has no connection with spirituality.
The study adds to understanding of the concept of filicide outside western societies. The importance of intensive community campaigns against filicide acts, and norms that support filicide acts, has relevance for all counties.
与国际上关于将杀子行为定罪的宣传一致，加纳1998年《儿童法案》（第560号）和《刑事司法法案》将任何形式的虐待儿童行为定为犯罪。然而，在加纳，由于文化规范中的一些观念为杀子行为提供了正当理由，杀子行为的实施者可能不会受到惩罚。杀子行为的文化叙事可能会阻碍杀子相关法律的适用和效力。
该研究采用了 vignette 方法，以探讨19名年龄在69岁至30岁之间的加纳城乡父母对加纳杀子法律及杀子干预措施的看法。研究人员向受访者提供了两个不同的 vignette（基于真实案例编写）的叙述，随后提出半结构化问题以探究这些叙述。访谈采用弗雷泽的叙事主题分析程序进行分析。
该研究确定了文化信仰与社区对杀子概念理解之间的关联。尽管社区成员知道杀子行为已被定罪，但他们中的大多数人并不了解加纳针对杀子行为的法律。在社区内处理杀子案件是参与者最青睐的选择，因为他们认为有些孩子，即所谓的“幽灵儿童”，该死。求助于巫医进行精神干预成为获得社区对杀子行为认可的规范途径。对于与精神因素无关的杀子案件，警方干预被认为是必要的。只有当杀子行为与灵性无关时，社区成员才愿意在杀子案件中与法律合作。
该研究增进了对西方社会以外地区杀子概念的理解。开展密集的社区运动反对杀子行为以及支持杀子行为的规范，对所有国家都具有重要意义。
