Abstract

The homicide of children by their parents has been reported across numerous cultural settings around the world and in many historical periods. A comprehensive and systematic understanding of parental child killing can be optimally obtained through a biopsychosociocultural approach. In this article we present the case of a woman who committed neonaticide. We illustrate the cultural formulation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and recommend that this formulation has a central role in the evaluation of cultural factors of parents who kill their children.

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