[url]http://www.theage.com.au/news/state/2001/08/23/FFXH6PLKOQC.html[/url]

It seems not all child-killers are equal


                  By JANET ALBRECHTSEN
                  Thursday 23 August 2001

                  Three days ago, 33-year-old Steven Fraser was charged with murdering his three
                  young children in his unit in a southern suburb of Sydney. Three months ago,
                  36-year-old Andrea Yates was charged with murdering her five young children in
                  her house in a south-eastern suburb of Houston, Texas.

                  The treatment by the media, the wider community and the legal system of mothers
                  and fathers who kill their children tells us that similarities between these two
                  harrowing stories end there.

                  When women kill their children, there is a reason. When men kill their children,
                  they are simply evil. The staggering hypocrisy behind these common reactions to
                  the tragedy of child homicides was again uncovered in the days after the murder
                  of the Yates children.

                  Across America in newspapers and on talk shows, there was an outpouring of
                  sympathy, not for the dead children, or the now childless father - but for the
                  mother. Susan Kushner Resnick of Salon magazine tapped into the national
                  female psyche when she said: "She could have been me. Or you. Or your wife."

                  One infanticide expert blamed society, claiming "there's blood on everyone's
                  hands". Another pointed the finger at the father, who had left his depressed wife
                  with five children as he trotted off to work.

                  Recent figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology show that when
                  children die at the hands of their biological parents, it is usually the mother, not the
                  father, who is the killer.

                  The highest rate of child homicide is among children under the age of one, and it's
                  in precisely this sort of scenario that women can rely on society's mercy. For
                  example, the Victorian Law Reform Commission found that in six case studies, all
                  women convicted of the crime of infanticide for killing a child under the age of 12
                  months received non-custodial sentences. In another six case studies of women
                  convicted of manslaughter on the basis of provocation, two were given
                  non-custodial sentences and the other four received sentences of less than five
                  years.

                  Many other cases simply don't proceed because prosecutors decide there are
                  mitigating circumstances, such as postnatal depression, which support a stay of
                  prosecution.

                  Postnatal depression has become much more than a physiological condition
                  following birth. It is a catch-all syndrome describing any or all of the following:
                  hormonal changes, genetic vulnerability to depression, emotional issues such as
                  disappointment with the birth process, stresses associated with job loss or new
                  parental responsibilities.

                  Such is the amorphous nature of postnatal depression that Marie Osmond, of
                  Donnie and Marie fame, added her two cents' worth during the debate about the
                  Yates case. Having experienced postnatal depression after her seventh child,
                  Osmond reflected, on NBC's Today Show, that "we're just expected to do it all
                  nowadays, and I think by trying to do it all, I think stress could be a big factor -
                  lifestyles, diet, nutrition". So the list goes on.

                  We don't bat an eyelid when a mother is let off the hook for killing her own
                  children. But when fathers kill their children, blame falls squarely on their
                  shoulders.

                  The AIC study found that where the offender of child homicides committed
                  suicide, it was usually the biological father. And such incidents were usually
                  precipitated by the breakdown of a marital relationship where the wife leaves the
                  home taking the children, or by the husband finding out that custody has been
                  awarded to his former wife.

                  This paints a stark picture of men laboring under severe depression which, in
                  many cases, is caused by being deprived of their children. But what is our
                  reaction to their crime? They are evil. When fathers kill, whether through
                  depression or provocation, their emotional torment is somehow less credible, less
                  worthy - something not quite on par with emotional distress experienced by
                  mothers. And, therefore, men are seen as less deserving of the community's
                  mercy. Why?

                  If depressed fathers who kill their children can't be accorded the same degree of
                  compassion as mothers who kill, perhaps it's time to hand out equal doses of
                  accountability.

                  In her 1997 book When She Was Bad: How and Why Women Get Away With
                  Murder, Patricia Pearson reported her research showing that "Women commit
                  the majority of child homicides in the United States, a greater share of physical
                  abuse, an equal rate of sibling violence and assaults on the elderly, about a quarter
                  of sexual abuse, an overwhelming share of the killing of newborns, and a fair
                  preponderance of spousal assaults".

                  In short, her book suggests that if men and women have an equal capacity to
                  achieve all that is good, they also have an equal capacity for all things evil.

                  It's not a pretty picture, but it comes with the territory of equality.

                  Janet Albrechtsen is a Sydney lawyer and journalist.
                  E-mail: [email protected]