ABSTRACT
Violating those taboos held most sacred, infanticide is a crime that bewilders and appals both the general public and mental health professionals. The attributes conventionally assigned to motherhood are grotesquely distorted in this crime. The twin taboos of child killing and female violence are irrevocably interwoven in this offence. The public imagination feeds on tales of infanticide, devouring the details with disbelief and fascination.
