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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Infanticidal ideas and infanticidal behavior in Indian women with severe postpartum psychiatric disorders.

Few studies have investigated maternal aggression toward infants among women with a severe mental illness that emerges in the postpartum period. In this prospective study of 50 Indian women admitted to a psychiatric hospital for severe mental illness occurring in the postpartum period, we examined the prevalence, pattern, and predictors of maternal aggression, infanticidal ideas, and infanticidal behavior. Nearly half (43%) of the mothers reported infanticidal ideas, 36% reported infanticidal behavior, and 34% reported both infanticidal ideas and behavior. Infanticidal ideas and behavior co-occurred frequently (r =.80). Infanticidal ideas were associated with depression in the mother, adverse maternal reaction to separation from the infant, and psychotic ideas toward the infant. Infanticidal behavior was associated with having a female infant, psychotic ideas toward the infant, and adverse maternal reaction to separation from the infant. Logistic regression analyses indicated that presence of depression and of psychotic ideas predicted infanticidal ideas, whereas presence of psychotic ideas toward the infant predicted infanticidal behavior.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

[Attempted infanticide with a happy ending. Report of infanticide in Tirol and Vorarlberg].

The paper presents an analysis of infanticides which happened during the last 20 years, investigated by the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Innsbruck. On the basis of some casuistries forensic and criminalistic aspects of infanticides will be discussed. Special attention is payed to two cases of "survived infanticides" with re-establishing of the relationship between mother and child.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Infanticide and parental behavior in wild female house mice: effects of ovariectomy, adrenalectomy and administration of oxytocin and prostaglandin F2 alpha.

We have previously observed that about 60% of virgin, wild female house mice (Mus musculus), that were the offspring of wild mice trapped in Missouri, exhibited infanticide when a single 2-day-old pup was placed into each female's home cage. But, by the end of pregnancy, there was a significant increase (to 90%) in the proportion of wild female mice that exhibited infanticide. At parturition, infanticide was inhibited and parental behavior was induced in all females. In the present study we examined the influence of ovarian and adrenal hormones, as well as two hormones associated with pregnancy and parturition: oxytocin and prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF), in regulating infanticide and parental behavior in wild female house mice. The presence or absence of gonadal and adrenal hormones did not influence the frequency of infanticidal behavior in adult female mice. Subcutaneous injections of either oxytocin or PGF inhibited infanticide in previously infanticidal pregnant females 1 hr after injection, but only oxytocin served to also facilitate parental behavior (most PGF-treated females left the pup untouched). Oxytocin, but not PGF, was effective in inhibiting infanticide in previously infanticidal virgin females. These findings suggest that, by themselves, ovarian and adrenal hormones do not mediate the exhibition of infanticide by wild female mice, but the lack of response to PGF in virgin females suggests that endocrine changes during pregnancy (possibly changes in steroids) may modulate the inhibitory effects of PGF on infanticide.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed1986

Social and hormonal factors influencing infanticide and its suppression in adult male Long-Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus).

In a series of six experiments, the experiential and hormonal factors influencing infanticide in Long-Evans hooded rats were examined. Males, but not females, purchased from a breeder as adults exhibited infanticide at high rates, whereas males reared in the laboratory until adulthood were less likely to be infanticidal. Sexual experience reduced the rate of infanticide in laboratory-reared males, and cohabitation with a female through pregnancy and lactation (including exposure to pups) inhibited infanticide in previously infanticidal males. Fourteen days of cohabitation with a pregnant female following copulation inhibited infanticide in males purchased from a breeder, but copulation without cohabitation and copulation followed by cohabitation with a nonpregnant (ovariectomized) female did not inhibit infanticide. Castration of laboratory-reared males in adulthood did not reduce their rate of infanticide, whereas testosterone implants increased the number of males exhibiting infanticide. The importance of hormonal and experiential factors for controlling infanticide in male rats is discussed.

Aggression↗
PubMed1993

Genetic mediation of infanticide and parental behavior in male and female domestic and wild stock house mice.

Infanticide is a reproductive strategy found in many mammals, especially rodents. The proportion of male and female house mice (Mus domesticus) that are either infanticidal or noninfanticidal is strain specific and varies widely from stock to stock. Male house mice also show strain-specific variation in the behavioral mechanisms that inhibit infanticidal individuals from killing their own offspring. The adult offspring generated from reciprocally crossed CF-1 and Wild stock house mice were tested for their behavior toward newborn pups. In male CF-1 x Wild hybrids, the proportion of infanticidal and noninfanticidal males matched with their maternal phenotype, whereas female CF-1 x Wild hybrids exhibited a proportion of behaviors typical of the CF-1 phenotype, regardless of their mother's genotype. Our results suggest three conclusions: first, that infanticide is a highly labile and heritable behavior in both sexes; second, that there is a sex difference in the genetic substrate that regulates the inheritance of infanticidal behavior; and third, that selection pressures in male mice may operate independently on the mechanisms that promote spontaneous infanticidal behavior versus the mechanisms that inhibit infanticide.

Agonistic Behavior↗
PubMed1985

Time-contingent change in infanticide and parental behavior induced by ejaculation in male mice.

About 50% of sexually-naive male CF-1 mice (Mus musculus) commit infanticide (kill young). But, 80-90% of male mice commit infanticide between 1-4 days after mating. Between 12 and 50 days after mating infanticide is inhibited and most males (80-100%) behave parentally toward young (they build a nest, retrieve and groom the young, and hover over the young to keep them warm). Beginning at 60 days after mating, infanticide is again facilitated and parental behavior is inhibited (70-80% of males commit infanticide). The facilitation and inhibition of infanticide as a function of time after mating is mediated by the act of ejaculating rather than by mounting and intromitting during mating or by cohabiting with a female either before or after mating. The experience of committing infanticide either prior to mating or within the first 4 days after mating does not influence the facilitation of parental behavior that occurs 12 days after mating. But, repeated contact with young after males become parental serves to maintain parental behavior for an extended period of time. The age of the young (newborn-20 days old) utilized as stimulus animals does not influence these time-dependent changes in the behavior of male mice after ejaculation. This phenomenon is unique in that a response (infanticide) to a novel stimulus (young) is facilitated, then inhibited, and then facilitated again as a function of time between an event (ejaculation) and exposure to the novel stimulus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed1986

Inhibition of infanticide after mating by wild male house mice.

The effect of mating on the behavior of male house mice (Mus musculus) toward young has been examined in numerous domestic stocks of mice, and the somewhat contradictory results led us to examine the effects of mating on the behavior of wild male mice toward young. The wild mice were the F1-F4 offspring of mice trapped in Missouri. Virtually all wild males exhibit infanticide prior to mating, but virrually all wild males were inhibited from exhibiting infanticide 3 weeks after mating whether they were placed into the cage of their former mate and her litter or into the cage of an unfamiliar female and her litter, similar to the effect of mating on the behavior of CF-1 male mice toward young. In contrast, wild males that had exhibited infanticide prior to mating were inhibited from exhibiting infanticide 3 weeks after mating when placed with their former mates and their 2-day-old young but not when placed with unfamiliar females and their 2-day-old young. When wild males were tested for their behavior toward young using the procedure of placing a single pup into each male's home cage, mating did not result in an inhibition of infanticide (about 90% of the males exhibited infanticide). Cohabitation with a female without mating also did not influence the behavior of wild males toward young. Wild males that exhibited infanticide when placed with a lactating female produced their own young more rapidly than did noninfanticidal males, thus providing further support for the hypothesis that under some conditions, infanticide can be an adaptive trait.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed2000

Maternal infanticides in Fiji.

OBJECTIVE: This essay contributes to the cross-cultural literature on childhood homicides by examining 16 infanticidal homicides that occurred in Fiji over an 11-year period. The results are compared with infanticide studies conducted in other societies. METHOD: Official police data recorded in a Homicide and Manslaughter register are analyzed. These are supplemented by newspaper reports of infanticides and semi-structured interviews conducted with key criminal justice and medical personnel intimately associated with infanticide cases. RESULTS: The findings show that most infanticide defendants were young, poor, Fijian, with little formal education, living with nonparental kin at the time of the crime. The infanticides were precipitated by unwanted pregnancies brought on by nonmarital and extramarital sex. Pregnancy is carried to full gestation without knowledge of family, friends and neighbors of offenders and the infant is killed immediately following birth. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings demonstrate that the patterns of maternal infant killings in Fiji are congruous in many significant ways with those in advanced industrialized societies. It is concluded that additional research in non-Western, nonindustrialized nations is imperative to contribute to the development of sound conclusions about, and remedies for infanticide.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Infanticide, physicians, and the law: the "Baby Doe" amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

Infanticide, like most other species of homicide, is probably coeval with the human race itself. In modern Western civilization, what were formerly the most powerful incentives to infanticide have virtually disappeared. As with other social problems that affluence has seemed to solve, however, infanticide has reappeared in a new form that seems to have been made possible by affluence itself. This "new infanticide" occurs in a place whose very existence is the result of a tremendously wealthy society's devotion to its most vulnerable and least "useful" members. The modern neonatal intensive care unit, which treats, and often saves, extremely ill newborn children, who during most of history would surely have died, has proven to be a setting where many of the age-old incentives for infanticide have begun to operate again. The "new infanticide" consists of withholding food or needed medical treatment from selected infants who suffer from one or more serious, though treatable, medical problems. The national government has now enacted legislation designed to curtail the practice of infanticide by the medical profession. This paper traces the genesis of that legislation, explores the problem to which it is addressed, and evaluates its prospects for success.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗
PubMed1986

Infanticide by virgin CF-1 and wild male house mice (Mus musculus): effects of age, prolonged isolation, and testing procedure.

The frequency of infanticide by juvenile, young-adult, and adult male house mice (Mus musculus) was compared in CF-1 albino mice and the F1-F4 male offspring of wild mice trapped in Missouri. When tested in their home cages for their behavior toward a single 2-day-old pup after being individually housed for 5 days, juvenile CF-1 and wild males were equally likely to exhibit infanticide (about 35%). But, adult wild males were significantly more likely to exhibit infanticide (about 90%) than were adult CF-1 males (about 45%). We propose that differences in exposure to testosterone during fetal life may contribute to the difference in the incidence of infanticide between CF-1 and wild males. Prolonged isolation (45 days) significantly reduced the proportion of wild male mice that exhibited infanticide when the males were tested in their home cages, but not when the males were tested by being placed into the cage of lactating females and their 2-day-old young. Virtually all adult wild males exhibited infanticide when they were tested in their home cages (with either a 2-day-old or 7-day-old pup) or when they were placed into the cages of lactating wild female mice and their 2-day-old young. But, when adult wild males were placed with lactating wild females on Day 7 postpartum, the females attacked the males and most males were prevented from exhibiting infanticide.

Aging↗
PubMed2002

New cases of inter-community infanticide by male chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda.

Infanticide by males has been recorded in four chimpanzee populations, including that in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Some infanticidal attacks occur during inter-community aggression. The sexual selection hypothesis does not easily explain these attacks because they may not directly increase male mating opportunities. However, females in the attackers' community may benefit by expanding their foraging ranges and thereby improving their reproductive success; thus infanticide may increase male reproductive success indirectly. We report two new cases of infanticide by male chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park. Like two previous cases, these occurred during a boundary patrol and were almost certainly between-community infanticides. The patrolling males attacked despite the proximity of males from the victims' presumed community. This probably explains why, unlike the earlier cases, they did not completely cannibalize their victims. Such attacks seem to be relatively common at Ngogo and infanticide may be an important source of infant mortality in neighboring communities. Our observations cannot resolve questions about the sexual selection hypothesis. However, they are consistent with the range expansion hypothesis: the infanticides occurred during a period of frequent encounters between communities associated with a mast fruiting event, and Ngogo community members greatly increased their use of areas near the attack site during another mast fruiting event one year later. Our observations contribute to growing evidence that lethal intergroup aggression is a common characteristic of wild chimpanzee populations.

Aggression↗
PubMed1985

The influence of reproductive state on infanticide by wild female house mice (Mus musculus).

The majority of female mice (Mus musculus) from laboratory stocks are spontaneously parental. In contrast, the majority of adult wild female house mice exhibit infanticide (the killing of preweanling young), but the frequency with which infanticide is observed varies as a function of age and reproductive state. Prepubertal females were less likely to exhibit infanticide (39%) than were adult virgin females (61%). The frequency of infanticide increased during pregnancy, with over 90% of females exhibiting infanticide just before parturition. But, after parturition, previously infanticidal females cared for their own litters. When lactating female mice were tested after two days of separation from their own nursing young for their behavior toward a novel newborn pup on either the tenth or twenty-fifth day after parturition, the proportion of the females that exhibited infanticide was not significantly different from that of adult virgin females (about 60%). After only two hours of separation from their own nursing young on the tenth day after parturition, however, all females continued to exhibit parental behavior toward a novel pup.

Aggression↗
PubMed1989

Fetal, hormonal and experiential factors influencing the mating-induced regulation of infanticide in male house mice.

When a male house mouse encounters a neonate he either attempts to kill it or he does not harm it. An unusual aspect of his response is that adaptive, time-dependent changes in behavior toward pups result from a unique stimulus-response system triggered specifically by ejaculation. In virgin male CF-1 mice, about 50% of all males are spontaneously infanticidal when they encounter a pup while the other 50% are typically "parental." The stimulus of ejaculation causes virtually all males to kill pups; however, by the time offspring are born three weeks after mating, infanticide is inhibited and almost all males now behave parentally toward pups. Our experiments examine fetal, experiential, and hormonal factors influencing the changes in infanticidal and parental behavior that occur in male mice as a result of mating. Males who developed in utero between two female fetuses, and were thus exposed to relatively low testosterone concentrations during fetal development, were significantly more likely to exhibit infanticide--both before and after mating--than were males who developed between two male fetuses. Concurrent exposure to testosterone appears required in order for naive males to exhibit infanticide and for spontaneously parental males to become infanticidal after ejaculation. In contrast, neither testosterone nor pituitary hormones appeared responsible for the timed inhibition of infanticide occurring by three weeks after mating, since castrated and hypophysectomized males showed a response pattern similar to intact males. The mating-induced inhibition phenomenon appears to be a neurally timed and mediated response that operates independently from pituitary hormone secretions or changes in gonadal hormones resulting from mating.

Aggression↗
PubMed1980

Infanticide and fertility among Eskimos: a computer simulation.

Until recently, certain Eskimo groups were reported to practice female infanticide in the belief that the time spent suckling a girl would delay the mother's next opportunity to bear a son, males being preferred to females because of their future role as providers in a hunting economy. From sex ratios in census data, rates of female infanticide of up to 66% for some groups have been inferred, leading some ethnographers to conclude that these groups were headed for extinction. Eskimo beliefs regarding the effects of infanticide on fertility, however, are in accord with the results of research on the relation of fertility and lactation: The cessation of lactation following infanticide would significantly shorten the expected interval until the next birth. Given this fact and available field data regarding the parameters of Eskimo population growth, the present computer simulation indicates that Eskimo populations could sustain a rate of 30% female infanticide and still survive. Higher reported rates are explained as the combined result of female infanticide plus the tendency of ethnographers to overestimate the ages of juvenile females relative to juvenile males.

Computers↗
PubMed2002

Infanticide: is its incidence among postneonatal infant deaths increasing?: an 18-year population-based analysis in California.

The decline in the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and recent recommendations regarding the differentiation of SIDS and child abuse has generated speculation that some cases of infanticide were misdiagnosed as SIDS. The aims of this study were to determine the change in incidences and proportions of postneonatal deaths from all causes, SIDS, and infanticide in California over an 18-year interval encompassing years before and after the Back to Sleep campaign. Selected postneonatal mortality data from 1981 through 1998 obtained from the California Department of Health Services were analyzed and graphically displayed. The total postneonatal mortality and incidence of SIDS deaths per 100,000 live births decreased 45% and 66%, respectively, during the study interval; the incidence of infanticide remained low. The ratio of infanticide to SIDS increased from 4.3 per 100 in 1981 to 10.2 per 100 in 1998. Infanticide deaths, as a percentage of the total number of postneonatal deaths, increased slightly from the first to the second half of the study interval but never rose above 3.2%. It is concluded that this increased percentage is due to a decrease in SIDS deaths and not to an actual increase in infanticide deaths.

California↗
PubMed1990

[Infanticide in primates and man and the problems of reconstructing the social behavior of the hominids].

The general analysis of infanticide distribution pattern in primate and human populations is given. The possibilities to use the sociobiological, ecological, psycho-analytical and structural-social approaches are considered to explain the infanticide functions in primates. The necessity of exact data concerning the sex, age and social position of both: killers and victims (victim's mothers either) is stressed, as well the estimation of social situation in the group in the period before the infanticide. The qualitative differences in infanticide mechanisms in lower monkeys, anthropoids and man is illustrated. It is proposed to differentiate the infanticide on the individual level and as a group social strategy. The probability of infanticide in hominid societies on the different stages of evolution is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Responses of infant mice to odors of urine from infanticidal, noninfanticidal, and paternal male mice.

Infant mice responded differently to the odors of urine from isolated-infanticidal, isolated-noninfanticidal, and parental males. More ultrasonic vocalizations were produced in response to urine odors of parental males than to those of isolated-infanticidal males and more to infanticidal than to noninfanticidal males. Infants became agitated in the presence of urine odors of infanticidal males and moved away from the odor source whereas they tended to remain stationary in response to urine odors of parental males. The response to urine odors of noninfanticidal males was intermediate. These data support the hypothesis that infanticidal and parental states have different physiological bases and that this physiological difference results in different chemical composition of urine. The data failed to support the hypothesis that infants will attempt to conceal themselves from infanticidal males by remaining quiet.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Variation in infanticide and parental behavior in male mice due to prior intrauterine proximity to female fetuses: elimination by prenatal stress.

When sexually-naive male mice are placed together with newborn young, some males will commit infanticide (kill the young) while others will behave parentally (retrieve the young to a nest and keep them warm). The intrauterine position of male mouse fetuses, which is recorded at Cesarean delivery, has previously been found to influence the titers of estradiol that male fetuses are exposed to in utero. In adulthood, most male mice that developed in utero between male fetuses (2 M males) behaved parentally toward young, while most males that developed in utero between female fetuses (0 M males) committed infanticide. When 0 M and 2 M males were castrated at birth and tested with young in adulthood, few males committed infanticide. But, when these same males were tested with young after 25 days of treatment with testosterone, more 0 M than 2 M males committed infanticide and more 2 M than 0 M males behaved parentally. In contrast to the above findings, more 2 M than 0 M males that were castrated when 28 days old behaved parentally without treatment with testosterone; few of the non-parental males committed infanticide, but, instead, ignored the young. Finally, stressing pregnant mice by placing them under bright lights during the last third of pregnancy eliminated the effect of developing next to female fetuses in the male offspring, and all prenatally-stressed males resembled 2 M males in their behavior toward young: most prenatally-stressed males were parental rather than infanticidal when tested with young. The significance of these findings to models of hormonal effects on sexual differentiation is discussed.

Animals↗