Affair led to mother murdering her own kids
Days after buying another woman Valentine's Day flowers, a Sydney father came home to find a trail of blood leading him to the bodies of his two young children lying next to their mother, a court has been told.
Australian Associated Press
Aug 24 2009
The woman had given the couple's three-year-old daughter and four-year-old son rat poison and an unidentified pink liquid before smothering them and killing them, court papers said.
She then tried to take her own life, the NSW Supreme Court was told.
Doctors agree the mother, from Canley Heights in Sydney's west, was suffering from "major depression" when she poisoned her children on February 19 last year.
She has pleaded not guilty to the two murders by reason of mental illness.
As her judge-alone trial began, the mother's lawyer told Justice Clifton Hoeben his client didn't think life was worth living after learning about her husband's affair. More..
WOMEN:
THE FORGOTTEN CHILD MURDERERS
Women who kill their children are given sympathy and sentenced to "treatment" while men who do the same thing are charged with murder and sentenced to life.
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that women are many times more likely to murder their offspring than men. More ..
Homicide rate lowest in three decades
Globe and Mail
September 29, 2004
The national homicide rate in Canada dropped to its lowest rate in over three decades, a new Statistics Canada report said Wednesday.
The murder rate dropped 7 per cent in 2003, to 1.73 victims per 100,000 people, a 2003 survey found.
"The homicide rate has generally been declining since the mid-1970s," the agency said.
However, Mia Dauvergne, the manager of the homicide survey for Statistics Canada, told globeandmail.com that this particular survey does not try to establish reasons for the trend.
"Other research done in the United States and Canada have tried to identify some of the factors [for declining murder rates]. Age demographics [for example] have been looked at," she said.
John Manzo, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Calgary who specializes in criminology, told globeandmail.com the decline in murders is difficult to explain but has been common among many industrialized countries over the past three decades.
"If I had to say there was one central reason for it, I'd say it's a maturing population," he said. Canada's population has been steadily getting older as the baby boomer generation ages and fewer children are born. (The portion of Canada's population over age 65 is expected to rise to 20 per cent by 2025 from 13 per cent today.)
However people still perceive that crime, especially violent crime, is getting worse, Prof. Manzo said.
But this perception is wrong, as crime trend studies indicate, he said.
"An important lesson to get from these statistics is that the myth that things were always better in the past is clearly incorrect. And although we might attend to crime more in news and other media now, it's actually quite clearly the case that things are less dangerous now than they used to be."
For example, in this particular survey, Statscan found that 2003's 548 homicides were actually 34 fewer than were committed in 2002.
The major factor for the 2003 decline was a reduction in the number of women killed in Canada, the study found.
Fifty fewer women were killed than in 2002. More..
Statistics Canada - Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
Child / Youth Murder / Homicide Statistics in Canada
According to Statistics Canada, the Government of Canada's statistics agency, when a child is murdered in Canada, it's usually at the hands of a relative, not a stranger.
Family members were found guilty in almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of the 1,990 solved cases of children and youth homicides in Canada between 1974 and 1999, according to Statistics Canada. Twenty-seven per cent of the murders were committed by acquaintances, and only 10 per cent by strangers.
When it comes to parents killing their own children, the number of mothers accused almost equals the number of fathers accused. Between 1974 and 2000, 460 fathers and stepfathers were accused of killing their children, compared to 400 mothers and stepmothers, according to Statistics Canada.
2003
There were 33 homicides committed against children under the age of 12 in 2003, the lowest number in over 25 years. Of these victims, 14 (or 42%) were under one year of age.
Of the 27 solved homicides against children, 23 were killed by a parent: 9 by a father, 4 by a step-father, 10 by a mother and 1 by a step-mother (in one incident, both parents were accused). In addition, 2 children were killed by their day-care provider and 2 by a stranger.
Considering Canada's population of 33 million people, there are, thankfully, very few children murdered.
2006
In 2006, there were 60 homicides committed against children and youth under the age of 18 across Canada.
36 of these homicides of children and youth were committed by family members in 2006, compared to 16 committed by non-family members (including acquaintances and friends) . The remaining 8 child homicides were unsolved.
With few exceptions, the rate of child and youth homicides perpetrated by family members has been consistently higher than the rate committed by non-family members (Chart 4.4). The family rate decreased in 2005 to just over 3 homicides per million children and youth, the lowest rate in 33 years.
Notes: Excludes homicides for
which police reported the accused-victim relationship as unknown. Rates
are calculated per million children and youth (0 to 17 year olds) using
population estimates provided by Statistics Canada, Census and
Demographic Statistics, Demography Division.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice
Statistics, Homicide Survey.
Parents responsible for most family-related homicides against children and youth
The majority of family perpetrated homicides against children under 18 years of age are committed by parents. Over the past three decades (1977 to 2006), 90% of family-related homicide victims under the age of 18 were killed by a parent (includes step and adopted parents but excludes other "social" parents such as foster parents).
Note the headline below provide by Statistics Canada which states that fathers are responsible for more child murders than mothers. Both numbers are very low. We looked into the statistics. We found that the rate of murders committed by biological mothers and biological fathers are nearly identical and very low number considering the total population of children.
Statistics Canada included step fathers in the 'fathers' statistics while not including step-mothers in the 'mother ' statistics. We attribute this disprepancy to feminist influence whish is prevalent in the agencies of the Government of Canada. Trying to prove that men are more violent to children than women is a key strategy to support funding of women's groups across Canada while the Goverment of Canada doesn't fund any men's groups.
Statistics Canada states:
Between 1997 and 2006, 56% of children killed by a family member were killed by their fathers ( both biological and step-fathers), 33% by their biological mothers, and the remaining 10% by other family members including step-mothers, siblings, grandparents, cousins or other extended family.
Notes: Percentages may not add up
to 100% due to rounding. Based upon a subset consisting of those victims
who were killed by one person, representing 95% of the total number of
family-related homicides against children and youth from 1997 to 2006.
Mothers and fathers include biological, step, adoptive and foster
parents. ‘Other family’ includes siblings, cousins and any other family
member related to the victim by blood, marriage or adoption.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice
Statistics, Homicide Survey.
Infants are at greatest risk of homicide by a family member
Between 1997 and 2006, about one-quarter (26%) of children and youth killed by a family member were infants (under the age of one year). Baby boys tend to be at somewhat greater risk than baby girls. During the most recent 10-year period, the rate of baby boys killed by a family member averaged 35 per million male infants, compared to 27 per million female infants (Chart 4.6).
Note: Rates are calculated per
million children and youth (0 to 17 year olds) according to the
applicable age group and sex category using population estimates
provided by Statistics Canada, Census and Demographic Statistics,
Demography Division.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice
Statistics, Homicide Survey.
The methods used in family-related homicides against children under the age of 18 varied depending on the age of the victim (Table 4.5). Family members who kill young children (0 to 6 years of age) are most likely to use physical force (e.g. strangulation, beating or Shaken Baby Syndrome). Older children and youth (7 to 17 years of age) are most likely to be killed with a weapon (e.g. knife or firearm).
The percentage figures listed by Statistics Canada - Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics are statistically meaningless since the actual numbers are statistically very low. The up and downs in the chart below are of little value becuase of the low actual number of deaths.