Editing Infanticide (section)

==Modern times==
{{See also|Missing women}}

Infanticide has become less common in the [[Western world]]. The frequency has been estimated to be 1 in approximately 3000 to 5000 children of all ages<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Putkonen Amon |author2=Almiron Cederwall |author3=Eronen Klier |author4=Kjelsberg Weizmann-Henelius |year=2009 |title=Filicide in Austria and Finland – A register-based study on all filicide cases in Austria and Finland 1995-2005 |journal=BMC Psychiatry |volume=9 |page=74 |doi=10.1186/1471-244x-9-74| pmid=19930581 |pmc=2784763 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and 2.1 per 100,000 newborns per year.<ref>{{cite journal| doi=10.1001/jama.289.11.1425 |last=Herman-Giddens |first=Marcia E. |author2=Jamie B. Smith |author3=Manjoo Mittal |author4=Mandie Carlson |author5=John D. Butts |date=19 Mar 2003 |title=Newborns Killed or Left to Die by a Parent A Population-Based Study |journal=JAMA |volume=289 |issue=11 |pages=1425–29 |issn=0098-7484 |pmid=12636466 |quote=Context: Interest in the discarding or killing of newborns by parents has increased due to wide news coverage and efforts by states to provide Safe Haven legislation to combat the problem. |doi-access=free }}</ref> It is thought that infanticide today continues at a much higher rate in areas of extremely high [[poverty]] and [[Human overpopulation|overpopulation]], such as parts of [[India]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Female Infanticide |website=Gendercide Watch |url=http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html |access-date=2013-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421141103/http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html |archive-date=2008-04-21}}</ref> Female infants, then and even now, are particularly vulnerable, a factor in sex-selective infanticide. Recent estimates suggest that over 100&nbsp;million girls and women are 'missing' in Asia.<ref>"[http://www.economist.com/node/15606229 The war on baby girls: Gendercide] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614064837/https://www.economist.com/node/15606229 |date=14 June 2018 }}". The Economist. March 4, 2010.</ref>

===Benin===
In spite of the fact that it is illegal, in [[Benin]], [[West Africa]], parents secretly continue with infanticidal customs.<ref>{{cite journal| last =Sargent| first =Carolyn|title =Born to die: witchcraft and infanticide in Bariba culture| jstor =3773562| journal =[[Ethnology (journal)|Ethnology]]|volume = 27|year =1988| doi =10.2307/3773562| issue =1| pages =79–95}}</ref>

===Mainland China===
{{See also|Sex-ratio imbalance in China}}

There have been some accusations that infanticide occurs in [[mainland China]] due to the [[one-child policy]].<ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5953508 NBC: China begins to face sex-ratio imbalance], NBC News, September 14, 2004</ref> In the 1990s, a certain stretch of the [[Yangtze River]] was known to be a common site of infanticide by drowning, until government projects made access to it more difficult. A study from 2012 suggests that over 40&nbsp;million girls and women are missing in mainland China (Klasen and Wink 2002).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=51345 |title=Estimation of the Number of Missing Females in China: 1900–2000 |access-date=2013-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420051451/http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=51345 |archive-date=2012-04-20  }}</ref>

===India===
The practice has continued in some [[rural area]]s of India.<ref>{{Cite news | last = Murphy| first = Paul| title = Killing baby girls routine in India| newspaper = [[San Francisco Examiner]]| page = C12| date = May 21, 1995}}</ref><ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/07/07/india.infanticide.pt1/index.html Grim motives behind infant killings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081133/http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/07/07/india.infanticide.pt1/index.html |date=4 March 2016 }}, CNN.com, July 7, 2003</ref> India has the highest infanticide rate in the world, despite infanticide being illegal.<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0209/p11s01-wosc.html For India's daughters, a dark birth day] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190827184513/https://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0209/p11s01-wosc.html |date=27 August 2019 }}, csmonitor.com, February 9, 2005</ref>

According to a 2005 report by the [[United Nations Children's Fund]] ([[UNICEF]]) up to 50&nbsp;million girls and [[Missing women of Asia|women are missing]] in [[India]]'s population as a result of systematic sex [[discrimination]] and sex selective abortions.<ref>"[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/opinion/24iht-edswami.html Missing: 50 million Indian girls] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509104405/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/opinion/24iht-edswami.html |date=9 May 2015 }}". The New York Times. November 25, 2005</ref>

===Pakistan===
Killings of newborn babies have been on the rise in [[Pakistan]], corresponding to an increase in poverty across the country.<ref name =tribune/> More than 1,000 infants, mostly girls, were killed or abandoned to die in Pakistan in 2009 according to a Pakistani charity organization.<ref>Daughter neglect, women's work, and marriage: Pakistan and Bangladesh compared BD Miller – Medical anthropology, 1984 – Routledge</ref>

The [[Edhi Foundation]] found 1,210 dead babies in 2010. Many more are abandoned and left at the doorsteps of [[mosque]]s. As a result, Edhi centers feature signs "Do not murder, lay them here." Though female infanticide is punishable by life in prison, such crimes are rarely prosecuted.<ref name =tribune>[http://tribune.com.pk/story/105019/infanticide-on-the-rise-in-pakistan-statistics/ Infanticide on the rise: 1,210 babies found dead in 2010, says Edhi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418065733/https://tribune.com.pk/story/105019/infanticide-on-the-rise-in-pakistan-statistics/ |date=18 April 2019 }}, ''The Tribune'', January 18, 2011.</ref>

===Oceania===
On November 28, 2008, ''The National'', one of Papua New Guinea's two largest newspapers at the time, ran a story entitled "Male Babies Killed To Stop Fights"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenational.com.pg/281108/nation5.php |title=Nation &#124; the National Newspaper |website=www.thenational.com.pg |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201083337/http://www.thenational.com.pg/281108/nation5.php |archive-date=1 December 2008 }}</ref> which claimed that in Agibu and Amosa villages of Gimi region of [[Eastern Highlands (Papua New Guinea)|Eastern Highlands]] province of [[Papua New Guinea]] where tribal fighting in the region of Gimi has been going on since 1986 (many of the clashes arising over claims of [[Witchcraft|sorcery]]) women had agreed that if they stopped producing males, allowing only female babies to survive, their tribe's stock of boys would go down and there would be no men in the future to fight. They had supposedly agreed to have all newborn male babies killed. It is not known how many male babies were supposedly killed by being smothered, but it had reportedly happened to all males over a 10-year period.

However, this claim about male infanticide in Papua New Guinea was probably just the result of inaccurate and sensationalistic news reporting, because [[Salvation Army]] workers in the region of Gimi denied that the supposed male infanticide actually happened, and said that the tribal women were merely speaking hypothetically and hyperbolically about male infanticide at a peace and reconciliation workshop in order to make a point. The tribal women had never planned to actually kill their own sons.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-12-01/salvos-deny-png-baby-killing-reports/225248|title = Salvos deny PNG 'baby killing' reports|newspaper = ABC News|date = December 2008|access-date = 17 September 2021|archive-date = 17 September 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210917230341/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-12-01/salvos-deny-png-baby-killing-reports/225248|url-status = live}}</ref>

===England and Wales===
In England and Wales there were typically 30 to 50 homicides per million children less than 1 year old between 1982 and 1996.<ref name=Marks2009>{{cite journal | journal = Psychiatry | doi = 10.1016/j.mppsy.2008.10.017 | title = Infanticide | volume = 8 | issue = 1 | pages = 10–12 | author = Maureen Marks | url = http://www.psychiatryjournal.co.uk/article/S1476-1793(08)00217-6/abstract | year = 2009 | access-date = 8 September 2011 | archive-date = 4 December 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191204175114/http://www.psychiatryjournal.co.uk/article/S1476-1793(08)00217-6/abstract | url-status = live | url-access = subscription }}</ref> The younger the infant, the higher the risk.<ref name=Marks2009 /> The rate for children 1 to 5 years was around 10 per million children.<ref name=Marks2009 /> The homicide rate of infants less than 1 year is significantly higher than for the general population.<ref name=Marks2009 />

In [[English law]] infanticide is established as a distinct offence by the [[Infanticide Act]]s. Defined as the killing of a child under 12 months of age by their mother, the effect of the Acts are to establish a [[partial defence]] to charges of murder.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Craig M |title=Perinatal risk factors for neonaticide and infant homicide: can we identify those at risk? |pmc=1079289 |pmid=14749398 |volume=97 |issue=2 |date=Feb 2004 |pages=57–61 |journal=J R Soc Med |doi=10.1177/014107680409700203}}</ref>

===United States===
In the United States, the infanticide rate during the first hour of life outside the womb dropped from 1.41 per 100,000 between the years 1963 and 1972, to 0.44 per 100,000 between 1974 and 1983.  The rates during the first month after birth also declined, whereas those for older infants rose during this time.<ref name=Paul>{{cite book| title = Management of unintended and abnormal pregnancy: comprehensive abortion care | url = https://archive.org/details/managementuninte00paul | url-access = limited | author = Maureen Paul | pages = [https://archive.org/details/managementuninte00paul/page/n52 33]–34 | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | isbn = 978-1-4051-7696-5 | date = 2009-05-11 }}</ref> [[Roe v. Wade|The legalization of abortion, which was completed in 1973]], was the most important factor in the decline in neonatal mortality during the period from 1964 to 1977, according to a study by economists associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research.<ref name=Paul /><ref name=BestIntent >{{cite book |author1=Eisenberg, Leon |author2=Brown, Sarah Hart |title=The best intentions: unintended pregnancy and the well-being of children and families |publisher=National Academy Press |location=Washington, D.C. |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bestintentionsun0000unse/page/72 72] |isbn=978-0-309-05230-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/bestintentionsun0000unse/page/72 }}</ref>

===Canada===
In Canada, 114 cases of infanticide by a parent were reported during 1964–1968.<ref name="Rodenburg 1971 43">{{cite journal | last = Rodenburg| first = Martin| title = Child murder by depressed parents| journal =[[Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal]]| volume = 16| page = 43| year = 1971| issue = 1| doi = 10.1177/070674377101600107| pmid = 5547202| s2cid = 36859937| doi-access = }}</ref>

===Spain===
In Spain, far-right political party Vox has claimed that female perpetrators of infanticide outnumber male perpetrators of femicide.<ref name="Alfageme">{{cite news |url=https://elpais.com/sociedad/2019/09/06/actualidad/1567772407_243899.html |title=Las cuentas y cuentos de Vox sobre las 'mujeres asesinas' de niños |first=Ana |last=Alfageme |date=6 September 2019 |access-date=8 March 2021 |newspaper=[[El País (Spain)|El País]] |language=es |publisher=[[Grupo Prisa]] |archive-date=26 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126065500/https://elpais.com/sociedad/2019/09/06/actualidad/1567772407_243899.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, neither the Spanish National Statistics Institute nor the Ministry of the Interior keep data on the gender of perpetrators, but victims of femicide consistently number higher than victims of infanticide.<ref name="Alfageme"/> From 2013 to March 2018, 28 infanticide cases perpetrated by 22 mothers and three stepmothers were reported in Spain.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2018/03/18/5aad7a67e2704e7f7d8b45b7.html |title=Las 22 madres y tres madrastras que asesinaron a sus hijos en España |first=Leyre |last=Iglesias |date=18 March 2018 |access-date=27 September 2018 |newspaper=[[El Mundo (Spain)|El Mundo]] |language=es |publisher=[[Unidad Editorial]] |archive-date=3 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203231514/https://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2018/03/18/5aad7a67e2704e7f7d8b45b7.html |url-status=live }}</ref>