Infanticide
and Neonaticide is the killing of a newborn within 24 hours of birth. It is
present in all cultures and economic classes, however by the use of contraceptives
or through abortion and better social conditions the modern society reduces
the population and reduces the frequency of infanticide.
In most cases it is difficult to report the infanticide as the death of infant covered
as stillbirth or they are not registered at the birth registry office.
Types of infanticide are -
1) Direct or active Infanticide - Deliberately killing the baby by means of
dehydration or starvation, by suffocation or head injuries is Direct
or active Infanticide.
2) Indirect or passive infanticide - Indirect or passive infanticide occurred by
careless parenting and
not given adequate nutrition especially when the baby is ill.
(1) Neonaticide
(2) Battering mothers that characterized by a abrupt
impulsive act caused by the victims’ behavior.
(3) Retaliating women who kill the child due to anger at
their partner.
(4) Unwanted children whose mothers are single, younger
and/or economically weak.
(5) Mercy killings, which reveal the mothers beliefs and tend
to include disabled victims and
(6) Offenders that is mentally ill.
Roots/causes of infanticide -
1) Control of the population
For the control and to regulate the population, particularly in the past, many societies
routinely used infanticide as a way and it mostly
affected the female children.
2) Unwanted pregnancies
Nowadays unwanted pregnancies are the utmost cause of infanticide. In many parts
of the world, there is no consideration and approach to modern forms of birth control
or medical abortion; as a result many females experience unwanted pregnancies.
Second reason is women or their families did not have adequate resources to take
care of their child. Third reason is illegitimate childbirths, which means that the
gestation is not the consequence of a marriage accepted by the society and it can
dishonor their family.
3) Beliefs derived from biological causes
In some culture like in Benin (Africa), when children born
with a disability then they are killed, as in their culture they are effected with
negative magical effects or evil spells. The same beliefs apply by Quijo people
in Ecuador in cases of twin and albino children birth. They killed the second
child or it is given to another family.
4) Female infanticide
The most common form of infanticide is the female
infanticide, both nowadays and in the past. In some cultures, men’s are socially
considered to be more valuable than women. Female infanticide resulted in a great
imbalance between the sex ratio of male and female in some regions. There is no
clear distinction between infanticide and abortion, sometimes it depends on situations.
MR. DEEPAK PAWAR has been working as Finger Print Expert / Police Officer in Finger Print Bureau , Delhi Police at New Delhi since 2001 . He is the senior most Finger Print Expert , attending / visited several scene of crime and solved many crime cases .He has passed M.Sc (Chemistry) and he is the Member of International Association of Identification . He is the Member of Delhi Police welfare association . He is supervising the Forensic , New Delhi District , Mobile Crime Team . He is one of the Expert in the Special Investigation Team held for investigation of important cases . He has been giving fingerprint proficient training to Delhi Police personnel's . He has been Presented / giving lectures on topics related to forensic science . He is also making examination paper of Finger Print proficient course . He is awarded with Police Medal by MHA and Delhi Police.