Rachel Anglum, 18, gave birth to a baby girl at the home where she lived with her parents. She allegedly delivered the baby alone and afterwards held her daughter in her arms for over an hour. It was later determined that she “hugged her newborn to death.” (Meyer 50)
Neonaticide is the killing of a newborn baby less than a month old. Typically, the mothers are the killers and are very young and unwed. About 90% of neonaticide mothers are aged 25 or the pregnancy. (2-Neonaticide)
Based on the Psychological Theory, crimes can result from a wide array of reasons most of which are: inappropriate learning or improper conditioning, a diseased mind, inappropriate, abnormal or dysfunctional mental processes within the personality, inappropriately conditioned behaviors. It is the personality that is the key motivational element in most people since it is the most common basis of drives and motives. (Schmallenger 89) With regard to the above captioned paragraph, it is thought the major reason for neonaticide mothers to commit this type of crime is because they are in denial of pregnancy. This type of denial is psychological and can be derived in a young woman with previous mental illness or no prior mental instability at all. The point is that a young woman in this particular “state of mind” is overwhelmed by fear of and shame of an unplanned pregnancy. It is their emotional immaturity and lack of resources that keeps these young women from understanding and coping with the repercussions of their pregnancies which is why most of them have the inability to show any remorse for killing their child. Furthermore, most of the young women cannot even recall being pregnant or even giving birth at all. (Meyer 53-54)
Another psychological theory is based on the psychotic offender. Psychosis is a mental disorder. Psychotic people have been found to be out of touch with