Infant killing and the role of the law and courts in England and Wales

Dr Emma Milne is Associate Professor in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at Durham University. She is a socio-legal scholar and a feminist criminologist. Emma’s research is interdisciplinary, focusing on criminal law and criminal justice responses to women who are criminalised. Emma’s monograph Criminal Justice Responses to Maternal Filicide: Judging the Failed Mother was published in 2021 (Emerald Publishing Limited). She co-authored Sex and Crime (SAGE, 2020), and co-edited Women and the Criminal Justice System: Failing Victims and Offenders? (Palgrave, 2018). Emma’s current research project explores legal professionals’ perceptions of the criminal law that surround maternal infant killings; funded by the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant.

A mother killing her baby is often perceived to be one of the worst crimes a woman could commit. However, as my previous research illustrates, maternal infanticide occurs in the context of extreme desperation faced by pregnant women and mothers. Killings most often occur when women ‘crack’ under intense pressure. Recognition of the latter has usually led to the adoption of lenient attitudes while prosecuting, defending, and sentencing these cases. In the last 4 years, however, 3 women have been convicted of murdering their newborn children an outcome that had not been seen in over 25 years. What we do not know is why this apparent change in how the criminal law and criminal justice respond to accused women has occurred.

To investigate this development in responses to cases of maternal infant killing, I am conducting interviews with professionals who work in the criminal justice system judges, solicitors, and barristers who have experience of infanticide cases to understand their perceptions of the role of criminal law. The research aims to: provide a better understandings of the nature of legal responses to infanticidal women; examine the context in which these legal outcomes occur; and, assesses the suitability of the current criminal law to respond appropriately to the challenges raised by the conduct of these women. The big question the research will consider: Is ‘justice’ being done for vulnerable women? This paper presents early findings from the research.

This seminar is part of an online open seminar series, hosted by the Centre for Criminology.

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