ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Page Count: 7

A Comprehensive Typology for the Biopsychosociocultural Evaluation of Child-Killing Behavior
Dassori, A
Assistant professor of psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, TX

Leong, GB
Associate professor of psychiatry, Ohio State University College of Medicine; and chief, Mental Health & Behavioral Science Service, Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic, OH

Silva, JA
Staff psychiatrist, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Clinical/Education Division, Palo Alto Veterans Health Care System, Menlo Park Division, CA

Yamamoto, J
Professor of psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, CA

Ferrari, MM
Physician associate, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, CA

Weinstock, R
Clinical professor of psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, CA

(Received 5 February 1998; accepted 24 March 1998)

Abstract

The homicide of children by their parents has been reported across numerous cultural settings around the world and in many historical periods. A comprehensive and systematic understanding of parental child killing can be optimally obtained through a biopsychosociocultural approach. In this article we present the case of a woman who committed neonaticide. We illustrate the cultural formulation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and recommend that this formulation has a central role in the evaluation of cultural factors of parents who kill their children.

Keywords:
forensic science, homicide, infanticide, neonaticide, filicide, cultural formulation, forensic psychiatry, biopsychosociocultural model, violence

Paper ID: JFS14371J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS14371J
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