ABSTRACT
Child homicide has occurred for as long as Homo sapiens has been a species, and probably among its predecessors. The lowest rates of child homicides, according to World Health Organization estimates, are found in European high-income countries. Given the predominantly domestic nature of child homicide, to explain high rates of child homicide, scholars have pointed to psychosocial and structural factors including poverty, lack of social support, lack of access to services and dysfunctional relationships. International research consistently shows that mothers are overrepresented in cases of infant homicide. The majority of filicide perpetrators are biological parents, where filicidal fathers are generally older than filicidal mothers. Some studies report mothers to be more likely to kill girls and fathers to be more likely to kill boys. The motive for the homicide is considered to be pseudoaltruistic: a parent decides there would be no one else to care for the children after having committed suicide.
