Lewis C F, Baranoski M V, Buchanan J A, Benedek E P
William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute, Columbia, SC, USA.
J Forensic Sci. 1998 May;43(3):613-8.
The objective of this study was to identify factors associated with weapon use in a group of filicidal women. Clinical data were gathered from the charts of sixty filicidal women evaluated at Michigan's Center for Forensic Psychiatry or through Connecticut's Psychiatric Security Review Board from 1970 to 1996. Factors associated with weapon use were determined using chi squares, ANCOVAS, and a logistic regression. Results were compared to national statistics for child homicide from the Department of Justice Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). Weapon was defined as knife or gun for the study. Weapons were used by one of four women in our study. Guns were used by 13% of filicidal women and knives by 12%. Odds ratio showed that psychotic women were eleven times more likely to kill their child with a weapon than their non-psychotic counterparts (11.2; p = .008). Psychosis was present in every mother who killed her child with a knife and in seven of eight women who killed their children with a gun. Younger children were less likely to be killed with weapons (ANCOVA; F = 8.28; p = .006). This finding was independent of presence or absence of maternal psychosis. These results show that psychotic women are more likely than non-psychotic women to kill their children with weapons. They also show that mothers are more likely to use weapons to kill older children than younger children.
本研究的目的是确定与杀子女性使用武器相关的因素。临床数据收集自1970年至1996年在密歇根法医精神病学中心接受评估的60名杀子女性的病历，或通过康涅狄格州精神病安全审查委员会获取。使用卡方检验、协方差分析和逻辑回归确定与武器使用相关的因素。研究结果与美国司法部统一犯罪报告（UCR）中的全国儿童杀人统计数据进行了比较。本研究将武器定义为刀或枪。在我们的研究中，四分之一的女性使用了武器。13%的杀子女性使用了枪，12%使用了刀。优势比显示，患有精神病的女性用武器杀害孩子的可能性是非精神病女性的11倍（11.2；p = .008）。在每一位用刀杀害孩子的母亲以及八名用枪杀害孩子的女性中的七名中都存在精神病。年幼的孩子被武器杀害的可能性较小（协方差分析；F = 8.28；p = .006）。这一发现与母亲是否患有精神病无关。这些结果表明，患有精神病的女性比非精神病女性更有可能用武器杀害孩子。它们还表明，母亲杀害年长孩子时比杀害年幼孩子时更有可能使用武器。
