KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — A recent study by a leading psychiatrist has found that mothers who have been convicted of filicide — the murder of one’s own child — were themselves victims of violence with no real intention of committing the heinous act.

Dr Salmi Razali, a senior lecturer at Monash University, had interviewed nine women between 18 and 40 years who were incarcerated for killing their children, from newborn babies to as old as 13 years.

“Some went through early parental loss or parental separation. Some were victims of social injustice or indirect structural violence which brought upon poverty, lack of education, low wage occupation, marginalisation and poor support system,” she said in her presentation at the 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect here last week.

“Others had a difficult adulthood which were a result of their rebellious behaviour, and courtship or marriage without family or social approval.”

Dr Salmi said three essential themes emerged from the study, titled “Understanding Women Convicted of Filicide”.

They lived in a harsh environment throughout their lives which led to adverse childhood experiences, confused young adulthood, victim of violent spouse, tragic pregnancy and grieved for the loss of their child.

They lived in a marginalised social position and were trapped within the predicament which they had lack of knowledge, empowerment, agency and skill of seeking help.

Trapped in their unfortunate world, they became women who surrendered their own rights and blindly submitted to their abusive spouse.

“They soon acquired the maladaptive way of coping life stresses with anger and hurting themselves, they suffered from emotional disturbances and finally faced the just versus unjust sentence for filicide,” she said.

She said violence by their intimate partner was a recurring theme that emerged throughout the interviews with the convicted women.

“One was raped by her boyfriend after he spiked her drink, some were beaten up frequently by their husbands, some said the children would be beaten up by their husband, and more,” she said.

Dr Salmi also shared some shocking quotes from those she interviewed:

“He dragged me onto the floor. He sat on me. He forcefully beat me. Then I tried to run away. But he kept pulling me. He dragged me until my clothes were torn off. I was naked in front of the children.” — E, 29-year-old housewife who was convicted of killing her four-year-old daughter.

“He treated me very badly. He said I was a whore. When I wanted to run away from him, he dragged me. Thank God my neighbours came and helped me. He stepped on me and said ‘Here, this is my love to you.’ He even beat me when I was pregnant.” — C, 24-year-old clerk who was charged with abandoning her baby which led to its death.

Dr Salmi said the intimate partners were violent out of emotion, or drug abuse, or failure to contribute to the family’s earnings.

The women were often victims of female subjugation.

She said the circumstances of filicide in the study were either an unintentional act, or abandoning the baby or concealing the body, or abetting in murder.

Even though her study of the convicted women had contrasting views on filicide, Dr Salmi said it brought out a fresh perspective for service providers to target their approach differently.

“The women convicted of filicide in this study had no direct intention to kill their children. It occurred when they were trapped within a violent environment,” she said.

She said the filicide cases in her studies were directly connected to social inequality or poverty, gender inequality, and most prevalently, violence against women and children.