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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Forensic and Legal Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1456514

The Offense Characteristics of Maternal Filicides in eSwatini: Adding to Resnick's Classification Model

Provisionally accepted
Sifiso Shabangu Sifiso Shabangu *Melanie Moen Melanie Moen
  • Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Maternal filicide, the murder of a child by a mother, is a complex phenomenon. Relatively little is known of filicide on the African continent, especially in eSwatini. This study highlights the complex dynamics at play when these crimes are committed. This retrospective study explored offense characteristics of maternal filicide cases in eSwatini from 2005 to January 2024. Thirty-one cases were identified through court documents and news reports.Content analysis revealed that socio-cultural factors such as the role of a woman in society and traditional beliefs contributed to these crimes. Poverty and contextual challenges also contributed to the systemic reasons for these murders. Relationship challenges featured prominently. A unique finding in this study was the use of poison by biological mothers in all the filicide-suicide attempts. We argue for the inclusion of an additional socio-cultural category to Resnick's classification model. Ultimately, there is a need for further exploration of filicide in eSwatini and other contexts. This would aid in identifying risk factors in pregnant mothers, in young mothers, among couples, and within socio-cultural practices.

    Keywords: Eswatini, Maternal filicide, Resnick model, Socio-cultural motivation, Retrospective study

    Received: 28 Jun 2024; Accepted: 04 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Shabangu and Moen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sifiso Shabangu, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 7602, Western Cape, South Africa

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