JMR Oct 29 10:53pm

After reviewing your peers’ problem, purpose, research questions, and initial thoughts on a theoretical framework, discuss whether you agree with the type of theoretical framework they are contemplating, or why they may want to consider another type of theoretical framework.

The social problem of women who kill their own children continues to present as one of the worse social issues in the United States. The killing of one’s own children dates back centuries from ancient time to the present. The reason for killing children varies and can include the culture in which the mother and child live in, time period, socioeconomic status and so forth. In recent times, child homicide by a parent can be attributed to child abuse. Death in cases such as this is the ultimate child abuse act. For example, five children die each day at the hands of a parent eg. child abuse in 2024. Of those deaths 66% were age 3 years and under (American SPCC, 2026). This indicates a significant problem in the United States. When a child dies often it is considered an accidental death rather than a suspicious event, for example, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDs). There are legitimate SIDs deaths, but they occur with only one or at the most two children in the family. When the deaths are three or more, this becomes suspicious as in the case of Mary Beth Tinning and other mothers. Mary Beth Tinning gave birth to eight children, all of whom died before their third birthday. Mary Beth was convicted of second-degree murder for the last child she killed. These killings occurred during the time period of 1972-1985. It took all these deaths and the work of social workers, medical staff and other professionals to prove that she was killing her own children (Owens, 1998). This is not the only case of a mother killing her own children. There are too many to list here, but the problem is that this is not just a historical issue, but a problem that exists today.

The murder of children by their own mother is divided into three subtypes, neonaticide for babies less than a week old; infanticide for babies under age 1 year; and filicide for children ages 1-18 years. Though there are different ages associated with each subtype in various studies, these three subtypes as described will be used for this paper. When there are differences in a study, this will be noted. The reason for the subtypes is that there are differences between them that go past age, for example, the age of the mother or the motive for killing (Walsh et al., 2026).