Friday, November 18, 2016

Unstable Mother and The Vulnerable Child

Why do some mothers commit the unthinkable act of maternal filicide?


In WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — In Raijon, a child named, Daniel, has been beat, starved, and washed with chemicals and high pressured hoses by his own mother, Teresa Moses.
On 2009, a mother, Judith Williams, drove her 16 year old son on Mount Diablo State Park and shot him in the back and head, and then shooting herself as well.
In April, a young San Jose mother, Ashley Newton, was arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing her own son who was only 7 month old in Livermore, Calif., park.
These mother committed such horrible acts. However, many will come to ask themselves, “why would someone do such things?”
Well first, these crimes in general is pretty rare.
Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology in Washington, D.C., once stated, “But it should be noted that this is not common. It is very rare.”
Many are usually showed to have a disorder or a mental problem.
Phillip Resnick, an expert in maternal filicide and a co-author of a 2007 World Psychiatry study, stated that on most psychiatric studies, mothers killing their children had depression, psychosis, and suicidal thoughts.
All the motives of why mothers kill their children are different. But these are some of the reasons.
Altruistic filicide: Where a mother creates a belief that killing the child would be the best decision for the child
 Acutely psychotic filicide: Where a mother kills without an real motive, possibly hearing voices in their heads
Spouse revenge filicide: In order to get revenge, a mother killing her child to go against the father emotionally.
Overall, these situations does not occur so often unless it's an unusual circumstance.