Neonaticidal mothers: are more boys killed?

Neonaticide refers to the homicide of a newborn of less than 24 hours old. Recently, certain authors have reported that only boys were victims (Dubé, 1998; Haapasalo and Petäjä, 1999). The aim of this study was to determine whether the proportion of male/female victims identified in the literature varied significantly from the official proportions of males/females at birth in countries of the Western World. Two types of study were taken into account to identify the victims' sex, namely, those presenting case reports and those presenting case series. A total of 420 neonaticides were included in our analyses. The majority of newborn victims were male (58.3%). However, there was no significant difference compared with the percentage of male births (51.4%). Based on the data collected, results indicate overall that a child's sex is not a significant factor associated with neonaticide.