When mothers kill: Interviews from prison

When Mothers Kill: Interviews from Prison

Volumn , Issue , 2008, Pages 1-179

  Oberman, Michelle ^a   Meyer, Cheryl ^b  

^a SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84900144538     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Book

References (141)

1. See Geoffrey R. McKee, Why Mothers Kill: A Forensic Psychologist's Casebook (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
2. See also Margaret Spinelli, ed., Infanticide: Psychosocial and Legal Perspectives on Mothers who Kill (Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Press, 2003).
3. Cheryl L. Meyer and Michelle Oberman, Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom" (New York: New York University Press, 2001).
4. For a description of postpartum illnesses and their role in legal cases, see Cheryl L. Meyer and Taro Proano, "Postpartum Syndromes and the Legal System," in It's a Crime: Women and Justice, 4th ed., ed. R. Muraskin (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006), 103.
5. John Godfrey Saxe, "The Blindmen and the Elephant," in Poetry of America: Selections from One Hundred American Poets from 1776 to 1876, ed. W. Linton (London: George Bell and Sons, 1887), 150.
6. Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as an Experience and Institution (New York: Norton, 1976), 118, 218-19, 246-47;.
7. Ann Phoenix, Anne Woollett, and Eva Lloyd, Motherhood: Meanings, Practices and Ideologies (London: Sage Publications, 1991), 41, 62;.
8. Nancy Chodorow, The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), 11, 30, 57, 209.
9. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999), 69.
10. Rich, Of Woman, 246-7.
11. Rich, Of Woman, 218-19.
12. Chodorow, Reproduction, 57.
13. See George W. Holden, Robert Geffner, and Ernest N. Jouriles, eds., Children Exposed to Marital Violence: Theory Research, and Applied Issues (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1998);.
14. Sandra J. Kaplan, ed., Family Violence: A Clinical and Legal Guide (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1996), 145;.
15. Murray A. Straus, Richard J. Gelles, and Christine Smith, Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1990). In a nationalsurvey of more than six thousand American families, 50 percent of the men whofrequently assaulted their wives also frequently beat their children.
16. See Kathleen J. Sternberg, Laila P. Baradaran, Craig B. Abbott, Michael E. Lamb, and Eva Guterman, "Type of Violence, Age, and Gender Differences in the Effects of Family Violence on Children's Behavior Problems: A Mega-Analysis," Developmental Review 26 (2006): 89-112.
17. Martha J. Cox and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, eds., Conflict and Cohesion in Families: Causes and Consequences (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999), 207-9, 327.
18. Lynne Henderson, "Without Narrative: Child Sexual Abuse," Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law 4 (1997): 479.
19. Juliet Schor, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure (New York: Basic Books, 1991).
20. Phoenix, Woolett, and Lloyd, Motherhood, 41.
21. Rich, Of Woman, 53.
22. See, for example, Rich, Of Woman;.
23. Kathleen A. Kendall-Tackett, The Hidden Feelings of Motherhood: A Guide to Coping with Stress, Depression, and Burnout (Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2001), 19-92.
24. See generally Naomi Cahn, "Birthing Relationships," Wisconsin Women's Law Journal 17 (2002): 163-98;.
25. Elizabeth K. Bowman and Howard A. Palley, "Improving Adolescent Pregnancy Outcomes and Maternal Health: A Case Studyof Comprehensive Case Managed Services," Journal of Health and Social Policy 18 (2003): 15-42;.
26. Elizabeth J. Samuels, "Time to Decide? The Laws Governing Mothers' Consents to the Adoption of Their Newborn Infants," Tennessee Law Review 72 (2005): 509-72.
27. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, "Mothers and Others," Natural History, May 2001, http://citrona.com/articlesbysbh.htm.
28. Sally Placksin, Mothering the New Mother: Women's Feelings and Needs After Childbirth (New York: New Market Press, 2000), 48-54, noting that one commondenominator across more than two hundred cultures, as of the mid-twentiethcentury, is the large amount of care and energy given to the new mother-babyunit, particularly by the new mother's female relatives;.
29. see also Gregory R. Pierce, Barbara R. Sarason, and Irwin G. Sarason, eds., Handbook of Social Support andthe Family (New York: Plenum Press, 1996), 386-87.
30. Timmen L. Cermak, A Primer on Adult Children of Alcoholics, 2nd ed. (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1989), 34-64;.
31. Migs Woodside, "Children of Alcoholics: Helping a Vulnerable Group," Public Health Report 103 (November-December 1988): 643-48, noting that because alcoholism is a familysecret, children rarely seek help, even as adults.
32. Leslie Baldacci, "A Guide to Your Student," Chicago Sun Times, August 26, 2005, 69.
33. Michelle Fine and Pat Macpherson, "Over Dinner: Feminism and Adolescent Female Bodies," in Power/Gender: Social Relations in Theory and Practice, ed. Lorraine H. Radtke and Henderikus J. Stam (London: Sage Publications, 1994), 219-46;.
34. Deborah L. Tolman, "Doing Desire: Adolescent Girls' Struggles For/With Sexuality," Gender and Society 8 (September 1994): 324-42. Girls describetheir fear of being too sexual or "losing control" and being branded a "slut.".
35. Studies consistently indicate that approximately half of all high schoolstudents experience sexual intercourse. "Abstinence Only Fails to Stop Early Pregnancies, Diseases," USA Today, July 30, 2007, 10A.
36. Hazel Glen Beh and Milton Diamond, "The Failure of Abstinence-only Education: Minors Have a Right to Honest Talk About Sex," Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 15 (2006): 12-51, at 12.
37. See Joel R. Grossbard, Christine M. Lee, Clayton Neighbors, Christian S. Hendershot, and Mary E. Larimer, "Alcohol and Risky Sex in Athletes and Nonathletes: What Roles Do Sex Motives Play?" Journal of Studies on Alcoholand Drugs 68 (2007): 566-69.
38. See also A. Danielle Iuliano, Ilene S. Speizer, John Santelli, and Carl Kendall, "Reasons for Contraceptive Nonuse at First Sex and Unintended Pregnancy," American Journal of Health Behavior 30 (January-February 2006): 92-102.
39. Jennifer Manlove and Elizabeth Terry-Humen, "Contraceptive Use Patterns Within Females' First Sexual Relationships: The Role of Relationships, Partners, and Methods," Journal of Sex Research 44 (2007): 3-16.
40. See Michelle Oberman, "Regulating Consensual Sex with Minors: Defining a Role for Statutory Rape," Buffalo Law Review 48 (2000): 703-84, describing adolescent vulnerabilityto coercion in sexually intimate relationships.
41. For a discussion of this, see Laura M. Carpenter, "From Girls into Women: Scripts for Sexuality and Romance in Seventeen Magazine, 1974-1994," Journal of Sex Research 35 (1998): 158-68.
42. See also Peggy Giordano, Monica A. Longmore, and Wendy D. Manning, "Gender and the Meanings of Adolescent Romantic Relationships: A Focus on Boys," American Sociological Review 71 (April 2006): 260-87.
43. Cheryl Hanna, "Women as Perpetrators of Crime: Sex Before Violence: Girls, Dating Violence, and (Perceived) Sexual Autonomy," Fordham Urban Law Journal 33 (2006): 437, 440-42.
44. See Katherine Baker, "Sex, Rape, and Shame," Boston University Law Review 79 (1999): 663, 675-84.
45. See Oberman, "Regulating Consensual Sex with Minors," 734-52.
46. Mary Gilfus, "Women's Experiences of Abuse as Risk Factor for Incarceration" (Harrisburg, PA: VAWnet, a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence/Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2002), available online at http://new.vawnet.org/category/Main_Doc.php?docid=412.
47. See also C. W. Harlow, "Prison Abuse Reported By Inmates and Probationers," NCJ 172879 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1999).
48. See Angela Browne, Brenda Miller, and Eugene Maguin, "Prevalence and Severity of Lifetime Physical and Sexual Victimization Among Incarcerated Women," International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22 (May-August 1999): 301-22. Smaller, more indepthstudies have found that 94 percent of women reported severe physical orsexual abuse, 82 percent were abused a children, and 75 percent reported IPV.
49. Browne, Miller, and Maguin, "Prevalence and Severity.".
50. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, trans. Constance Garnett (New York: Random House, 2000), 5.
51. The four main types of IPV are physical violence, sexual violence, threatsof physical or sexual violence, and psychological emotional violence. "Intimate Partner Violence Overview," National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/ipvoverview.htm.
52. citing L. E. Saltzman, J. L. Faslow, P. M. McMahon, and G. A. Shelly, Intimate Partner Violence Surveillance: Uniform Definitions and Recommended Data Elements, version 1.0 (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Preventionand Control, 2002).
53. "Intimate Partner Violence Fact Sheet," National Center for Injury Preventionand Control, http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/ipvfacts.htm.
54. citing P. Tjaden and N. Thoeness. Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, Consequencesof Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, Publication No. NCJ183781 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2000).
55. See Lenore E. Walker, The Battered Woman (New York: Harper and Row, 1979).
56. See Walker, The Battered Woman, 44-51, 55-70.
57. For a summary of critiquesand expansions of Walker's work, see Kit Kinports, "Deconstructing the 'Image' of the Battered Woman: So Much Activity, So Little Change: A Replyto the Critics of Battered Woman's Self-Defense," St. Louis University Public Law Review 23 (2004): 155, 168-177;.
58. Evan Stark, "Re-presenting Woman Battering: From Battered Woman Syndrome to Coercive Control," Albany Law Review 58 (1995): 973-1026.
59. Walker, The Battered Woman, 55-70.
60. Experts cite to three factors in a woman's decision to stay: "1) practicalproblems in effecting a separation, 2) the fear of retaliation if they do leave, and 3) the shock reactions of victims to abuse." Angela Browne, When Battered Women Kill (New York: Free Press, 1987), 29.
61. Jennifer Ducharme, Catherine Koverola, and Paula Battle, "Intimacy Development: The Influence of Abuse and Gender," Journal of Interpersonal Violence 12 (August 1997): 590-99. This study found that non-abused respondentsscored significantly higher in intimacy than did abused respondents.
62. Walker, The Battered Woman.
63. For many years, federal welfare law prohibited both men and marriedcouples from receiving welfare benefits. Women welfare recipients' benefits couldbe suspended if they had a male partner in the home. Charles Murray, "Welfareand the Family: The U.S. Experience," Journal of Labor Economics 11 (1993): 224, 230.
64. See Nicole L. Letourneau, Miriam J. Stewart, and Alison K. Barnfather, "Adolescent Mothers: Support Needs, Resources, and Support-education Interventions," Journal of Adolescent Health 35 (December 2004): 509-25.
65. Sally Placksin, Mothering the New Mother: Women's Feelings and Needs After Childbirth (New York: New Market Press, 2000).
66. There is a rich literature on the divergent societal expectations placedon wealthy and poor mothers. See, for example, Martha L. Fineman, "Images of Mothers in Poverty Discourse," Duke Law Journal 41 (1991): 274-96.
67. Martha L. Fineman, The Neutered Mother, The Sexual Family, and Other Twentieth Century Tragedies (New York: Routledge, 1995).
68. Murray A. Straus and Julie H. Stewart, "Corporal Punishment by American Parents: National Data on Prevalence, Chronicity, Severity, and Duration in Relation to Child and Family Characteristics," Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review 2 (June 1999): 55-70;.
69. see also Ellen E. Pinderhughes, Kenneth A. Dodge, John E. Bates, Gregory S. Pettit, and Arnaldo Zelli, "Discipline Responses: Influence of Parents' Socioeconomic Status, Ethnicity, Beliefs About Parenting, Stress, and Cognitive Emotional Processes," Journal of Family Psychology 14 (September 2000): 380-400;.
70. Andrew Grogan-Kaylor and Melanie D. Otis, "The Predictors of Parental Use of Corporal Punishment," Family Relations 56 (January 2007): 80-91.
71. See Martha J. Cox and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, eds., Conflict and Cohesion in Families: Causes and Consequences (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999), 207-9, 327.
72. See generally Galia Shamir-Essakow, Judy A. Ungerer, and Ronald M. Rapee, "Attachment, Behavioral Inhibition, and Anxiety in Preschool Children," Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 33 (April 2005): 131-43;.
73. Kathleen McCartney, Margaret Tresch Owen, Cathryn L. Booth, Alison Clarke-Stewart, and Deborah Lowe Vandell, "Testing a Maternal Attachment Model of Behavior Problems in Early Childhood," Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45 (May 2004): 765-78.
74. See Barbara B. Woodhouse, "'Who Owns the Child?': Meyer and Pierceand the Child as Property," William and Mary Law Review 33 (1992): 995-1122;.
75. Odeana R. Neal, "Myths and Moms: Images of Women and Termination of Parental Rights," Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy 5 (1995): 61-71.
76. Neal, "Myths and Moms," 62.
77. Women who are serving life sentences without parole go through similarstages. For a discussion, see Sherri Roscher, "Development of Coping Strategiesin Female Inmates with Life Sentences," Psy.D. diss., School of Professional Psychology, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, 2006.
78. Reginald A. Wilkenson, "Mental Health Care for Ohio State Prisoners: The View from the Director's Office," Correctional Mental Health Report (January-February 2000), http://www.drc.state.oh.us/web/articles/article58.htm.
79. Dunn v. Voinovich, C1-93-0166 (S.D. Ohio, July 10, 1995).
80. See Dunn v. Voinovich. See also Fred Cohen and Sharon Aungst, "Prison Mental Health Care: Dispute Resolution and Monitoring in Ohio," Criminal Law Bulletin 33 (July-August 1997): 299-327.
81. Finally, see PBS Frontline documentaryon mental health care in Ohio prisons, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums.
82. The budget for mental health services in 2001 represented 5.1 percent ofthe ODRC operating budget. In 2006, mental health was allocated 4.21 percent. See Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Annual Reports, http://www.drc.state.oh.us/web/Reports/reports.htm.
83. Personal communication, Dr. Karen Dapper, Clinical Director of Mental Health Services, Ohio Reformatory for Women.
84. Associated Press, "Enron Founder Ken Lay Dies of Heart Disease," MSNBC Web site, July 5, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13715925. Following his conviction, Lay told reporters: "I am a lucky man. I am blessed.
85. God isin control. All things will work out for those who believe in God." Amelia H. C. Ylagan, "Obituary of a Corporate Man," Business World, July 17, 2006, S1.
86. Abraham Maslow, "A Theory of Human Motivation," Psychological Review 50 (July 1943): 370-96.
87. Austin Sarat, "'... The Law Is All Over': Power, Resistance, and the Legal Consciousness of the Welfare Poor,' Yale Journal of Law and Humanities 2 (1990): 343-79, 344.
88. See Cheryl L. Meyer and Michelle Oberman, Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom" (New York: New York University Press, 2001).
89. See, for example, K.H. v. Morgan, 914 F.2d 846 (7th Cir. 1990). A girlwas placed in nine foster homes over the course of three and half years and oft envictimized by beatings and sexual assault.
90. See also Children's Rights Organization, "Child Abuse and Neglect, Read a Child's Story," http://www.childrensrights.org/site/PageServer?pagename=jacksonbrothers.
91. See Kristine Schuerger, "Information Packet: Siblings in Foster Care," National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning, July 2002, http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/downloads/information_packets/siblings-pkt.pdf, notes studies indicating that state agencies succeed in keepingsiblings together less than 25 percent of the time.
92. See Rebecca Winters, "A Miami Child's Disappearance from Foster Care Reveals Cracks in a State's Overburdened System," Time, May 13, 2002, 55.
93. See also Shana Gruskin, "Two States Lead the Way to Reform: Illinois, Alabama Find Ways to End Crises in Child Care Similar to Florida's," Sun-Sentinel, June 3, 2002, 1A. Illinois suffered through gruesome child deaths, class-action suits, and courtordereddecrees in the early 1990s; it has recovered by reducing caseloads from acaseworker average of forty children per worker to fift een.
94. See Laurie M. MacKinnon, Trust and Betrayal in the Treatment of Child Abuse (New York: Guilford Press, 1998), 34-36, 60.
95. See Sara Rosenbaum, Anne Markus, and Colleen Sonosky, "Public Health Insurance Design for Children: The Evolution from Medicaid to SCHIP," Journal of Health and Biomedical Law 1 (2004): 1, 7-8. Despite Medicaid's embroiledreputation, it is the nation's single largest source of health insurance. In 2002 Medicaid covered 51 million persons at a cost of over $200 billion.
96. Kaiser Family Foundation, "The Uninsured and their Access to Health Care," October 2006, http://www.kff.org/uninsured/1420.cfm.
97. See Michelle Oberman, "Mothers Who Kill: Coming to Terms with Modern American Infanticide," De Paul Journal of Health Care Law 8 (2004): 3, 29;.
98. see also Marsha Ginsburg, "Little Lost Souls: Girls Who Throw Away Their Babies-Will Legal Abandonment Law Help?" San Francisco Examiner, January 16, 2000, A1, tells stories of multiple young girls who hide their pregnancies dueto fear, shame, panic, or lack of knowledge.
99. Alvin L. Schorr, Welfare Reform: Failure and Remedies (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001), 11-13, 24, describing the gradual process by which Aid to Familieswith Dependent Children (AFDC) became available to unmarried mothers.
100. See Gwendolyn Mink, "The Day, Berry, and Howard Visiting Scholar: Welfare Reform in Historical Perspective," Connecticut Law Review 26 (1994): 879, describing the manner in which a "welfare mother" is stigmatized for havingchildren outside marriage, for not working, for not "choosing" to depend onmen;.
101. Charles Noble, Welfare as We Knew It: A Political History of the American Welfare State (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 127, observing that socialconservatives felt that the availability of AFDC encouraged single women tohave children and caused families to break up.
102. See George Hesselberg, "Reagan's Lies Will Live On, Too," Wisconsin State Journal, June 8, 2004, B1.
103. See Catherine R. Albiston and Laura Beth Nielsen, "Welfare Queensand Other Fairy Tales: Welfare Reform and Unconstitutional Reproductive Controls," Howard Law Journal 38 (1995): 473, 479-80.
104. Kathleen Kost and Frank W. Munger, "Fooling All of the People Someof the Time: 1990s Welfare Reform and the Exploitation of American Values," Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law 4 (1996): 3, 14.
105. See Charles Murray, "Welfare and the Family: The U.S. Experience," Journal of Labor Economics 11 (1993): 224, 230.
106. Jason DeParle, American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare (New York: Viking, 2004).
107. Austin Sarat, "The Law Is All Over: Power, Resistance, and the Legal Consequences of the Welfare Poor," Yale Journal of Law and Humanities 2 (1990): 343, 344.
108. See Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 760 (1982). It is impermissible topresume that child and parent have adverse interests prior to a legal finding thata parent is unfit. The child welfare system thus contains an inherent, rebuttablepresumption favoring reunification.
109. Steven G. Anderson, "Welfare Recipient Views About Caseworker Performance: Lessons for Developing TANF Case Management Practices," Familiesin Society 82 (March-April 2001): 165-75.
110. MacKinnon, Trust and Betrayal, 34-36, discussing factors that shapeclients experiences with Child Protective Services caseworkers and noting thatsome parents view the state's involvement in their lives as mutually chosen-there are self-referrals and consenting referrals.
111. John E. B. Myers, ed., The Backlash: Child Protection Under Fire (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994), 56-57.
112. Rape trauma syndrome was first recognized by Ann Burgess and Lynda Holmstrom, Rape: Victims of Crisis (Bowie, MD: R. J. Brady, 1974);.
113. Burgessand Holmstrom, "Rape Trauma Syndrome," American Journal of Psychiatry 131 (1974): 981, 982;.
114. Carol C. Nadelson, Malkah T. Notman, Hannah Zackson, and Janet Gornick, "A Follow-Up Study of Rape Victims," American Journal of Psychiatry 139 (1982): 1266, 1267;.
115. Libby O. Ruch, Susan Myers Chandler, and Richard A. Harter, "Life Change and Rape Impact," Journal of Health and Social Behavior 21 (1980): 248-49. Although some researchers have written about thepsychological reaction to rape in terms of three or four technical stages of recovery, all agree that the basic stages are an acute stage and a long-term resolutionstage.
116. See Phillip J. Resnick, "Murder of the Newborn: A Psychiatric Review of Neonaticide," American Journal Psychiatry 126 (1970): 1414-15;.
117. see also Velma Dobson and Bruce Sales, "The Science of Infanticide and Mental Illness," Psychology, Public Policy and Law 6 (2000): 1098, 1105.
118. Amy Wills, "Comment: Neonaticide: The Necessity of Syndrome Evidence When Safe Haven Legislation Falls Short," Temple Law Review 77 (2004): 1001nn 183-86, and accompanying text, documenting the inconsistent treatmentof this crime by U.S. courts.
119. Mary Jane Weiss, "Hardiness and Social Support as Predictors of Stress in Mothers of Typical Children, Children with Autism, and Children with Mental Retardation," Autism 6 (March 2002): 115-30.
120. Trudi Venters Horton and Jan L. Wallander, "Hope and Social Support as Resilience Factors Against Psychological Distress of Mothers Who Care for Childrenwith Chronic Physical Conditions," Rehabilitation Psychology 46 (November 2001): 382-99.
121. Cynthia J. Schellenbach, Kathleen Strader, Francesca Pernice-Duca, and Marianne Key-Carniak, "Building Strength and Resilience Among At-Risk Mothersand Their Children: A Community-based Prevention Partnership," in Resiliencein Children, Families and Communities: Linking Context to Practice and Policy, ed. Ray De V. Peters, Bonnie Leadbeater, and Robert J. McMahon (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2005), 101-16.
122. See Craig Haney, "Psychology and the Limits to Prison Pain: Confrontingthe Coming Crisis in Eighth Amendment Law," Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law 3 (1997): 499, 523-25, 542-48, explaining the origins of the "just deserts" theory of incarceration, where retribution by the government trumps notions ofrehabilitation.
123. Joan Petersilia, "Parole and Prisoner Reentry in the United States," Crimeand Justice 26 (1999): 479: "Parole, a system that developed in the United Statesmore by accident than by design, now threatens to become the tail that wags thecorrections dog" (484).
124. Indeed, there is a cottage industry of books, popular and scholarly, devotedto dismantling the mythology around motherhood as blissful and easy. See, for example, Trisha Ashworth, I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007);.
125. Andrea J. Buchanan, Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It (New York: Seal Press, 2003);.
126. Susan Maushart, The Mask of Motherhood: How Becoming a Mother Changes Everything and Why We Pretend It Doesn't (New York: New Press, 1999).
127. Nancy Chodorow, The Reproduction of Motherhood: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender (Berkeley: University of California, 1978), 64.
128. Helen Prejean, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions (New York: Vintage, 2006).
129. Cheryl L. Meyer and Michelle Oberman, Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom" (New York: New York University Press, 2001).
130. See Margaret G. Spinelli, ed., Infanticide Psychosocial and Legal Perspectiveson Mothers who Kill (Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Press, 2003).
131. Radio interview with Rebecca Hopfer's parents on Sounds Local, WYSO, Yellow Springs, Ohio, January 11, 2002.
132. Michelle Oberman, "Mothers Who Kill," retelling the story of one youngwoman convicted of neonaticide.
133. Meyer and Oberman, Mothers Who Kill.
134. Michelle Oberman, "Understanding Infanticide in Context: Mothers Who Kill, 1870-1930 and Today," Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 92 (2002): 707, 711.
135. Amy Wills, "Neonaticide: The Necessity of Syndrome Evidence When Safe Haven Legislation Falls Short," Temple Law Review 77 (2004): 1001nn183-86, and accompanying text, 1021, documenting the inconsistent treatment of thiscrime by U.S. courts.
136. Rob Modic, "Hopfer Sentence Commuted: February Hearing Likely for Mom Who Killed Newborn," Dayton Daily News, January 16, 2004, A1;.
137. Stephen Hudak, "Home Arrest Ends: She Just Wants to Blend In," Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 21, 2002, B5.
138. Cheryl L. Meyer and Michelle Oberman, Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom" (New York: New York University Press, 2001).
139. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
140. Andrew Moskowitz, A. I. F. Simpson, Brian McKenna, Jeremy Skipworth, and Justin Barry-Walsh, "The Role of Mental Illness in Homicide-Suicide in New Zealand," Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology 17 (September 2006): 417-30.
141. Susan Hatters Friedman, Debra R. Hrouda, Carol E. Holden, Stephen G. Noffsinger, and Phillip J. Resnick, "Filicide-Suicide: Common Factors in Parents Who Kill Their Children and Themselves," Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 33 (2005): 496-504.