Unfortunately, our nation seems to be bombarded by weekly violence against children. Some are being intentionally murdered, others succumb as a result of collateral damage.
On social media, we are witnessing cases of physical abuse by parents and we heard of an 18-month-old infant being struck by a moving vehicle.
The decapitation of four-year-old Amarah by her stepfather, so threatened our sense of social order that it left many persons feeling a heavy sense of dread, shock, and anger, while others cried out for an explanation.
The murder of any child is tragic but filicide is more disturbing, as it is the ultimate betrayal because the parent’s role is to nurture and protect their children.
Some reasons for filicide are:
1. Spousal revenge—A deliberate attempt to make their spouses suffer to teach them a lesson. If you are angry at them, then you take it out on the object of their love.
Precipitants are infidelity, when separating and child custody disputes.
In Euripides’ play, Medea, she killed her two sons, and told her unfaithful husband, “Thy sons are dead and gone. That will stab thy heart.”
Some say if they can’t gain custody, they will ensure that their ex-spouse does not have the children either.
2. Pathological jealousy—If a man is competing for his wife’s attention with his child and thinks his needs are not being met he may harm the child.
3. Acute psychosis and delirium—There were cases, after an epileptic seizure, where a mother placed her baby on the fire and the kettle in her cradle, while another placed her infant in a microwave oven.
A psychotic parent may lose touch with reality and may be influenced by hallucinations and delusions. Different things can trigger this state but persons usually present with strange talk or actions, increased irritability or anger, and insomnia.
4. Altruistic—Done out of love, rather than anger or hate, attempting to relieve the child from real or imagined suffering.
If the suffering is real, they justify this as euthanasia.
On June 20, 2001, nurse Andrea Yates, of Houston, Texas, drowned her five children in a bathtub to “save their souls”.
This valedictorian of her high school class developed postpartum psychosis, where she thought her parenting capabilities were being scrutinised. After her fifth child, she believed that television commercials were referring to her and that cameras in her home were monitoring her mothering. She later believed that “Satan was within her”, and her children would “never be right” and they would “burn in hell”. She knew she would be executed for this crime but believed that Satan would be executed along with her. She had previously attempted to end her life to prevent this.
A subgroup is also seen where a person may decide to take their life but feel that they cannot abandon their children to suffer as they did.
Severe depression, even without psychosis, may distort one’s thinking to believe that the children will be better off in heaven with them. This is considered “extended suicide”.
Men are much more likely to murder their wives as well as their children.
5. Unwanted child—These murders are committed because the child is not wanted and this is a common motive for killing newborns.
On October 25, 1994, 23-year-old Susan Smith, of South Carolina, USA, drowned her 14-month-old and three-year-old sons when she drove her car into a lake, claiming a carjacker took the car from her. She did this to have a relationship with a man who did not want to be burdened with children.
6. Child maltreatment—These usually result from a fatal “battered child syndrome”.
Violent outbursts occur with overzealous discipline. Persistent crying is a common precipitant.
The well-respected Senior Supt Richard Smith, head of the TTPS North Central Division, described the Amarah incident as “heartbreaking and serious … it is something heinous. It’s quite a serious incident and quite unfortunate. Some of our officers today were reduced to tears upon arriving at the scene ... they were deeply affected”.
We need to be cognisant that when certain police officers appear intolerant, it may be their job taking its toll. They see the evil that men do. These first responders smell the putrefying flesh of corpses, they see the gore of some of our murdered victims, the mutilated bodies at accident sites, and they observe the blank stare of the rape victim.
It must affect them.
After the 2012, Newtown, Connecticut, US school shooting, President Barack Obama said, “We can’t legislate, can’t eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. But that can’t be an excuse for inaction.”
I think it is time for action.
