Here are some startling facts regarding filicide that can not be ignored in these discussions:
Daly and Wilson (1988) investigated the risk of filicide by stepparents and by genetic
parents. They found that, in an American sample, children less than 2 years of age living
with one stepparent and one genetic parent are 100 times more likely to be killed than are children living with two genetic parents
Children less than 5 years old (the focus of the current research, following Daly & Wilson, 1994) accounted for 42% of the 8,691 filicide victims.
About 93% (93.3%) of 30 filicides perpetrated by stepmothers and 56.1% of 1,845 filicides perpetrated by genetic mothers were committed by beating
http://www.toddkshackelford.com/downloads/Weekes-Shackelford-Shackelford-VV-2004.pd
16,32] More specifically, stepfathers were roughly eight times more likely than biological fathers to kill their children, and stepmothers were almost three times more likely than biological mothers to kill their children.[32] In addition, stepparents were found to be more likely to beat or bludgeon their stepchildren, whereas biological parents often shot or asphyxiated their children. The more violent actions of the stepparents may be explained as a manifestation of the hostility, resentment, and rage that they may feel toward their stepchildren.[16,32]
hree quarters of the time, the acts were committed in the home. The perpetrator was alone during the commission of the crime 86 percent of the time.
a stepchild must rarely have been as valuable to a stepparent’s expected fitness
as a child of one’s own would be, and we may therefore anticipate that stepparents will not, in general,feel such whole-hearted, self-sacrificial love for their wards as genetic parents so often do.
Fatal batterings of small children This most severe category of child maltreatment exhibits Cinderella effects of the greatest magnitude: in several countries, stepparents beat very young children to death at per capita rates that are more than
100 times higher than the corresponding rates for genetic parents.
hhttp://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/buller/cinderella%20effect%20facts.pdf
1).1 family members (including nonparental offenders) accounted for
21.4 percent of offenders who committed crimes against all juveniles and 53.5 percent
of those who committed crimes against young children
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/189102.pdf
Results Half the homicides occurred by the fourth month of life. The most important risk factors were a second or subsequent infant born to a mother less than 17 years old (relative risk, 10.9) or 17 to 19 years old (relative risk, 9.3), as compared with a first infant born to a mother 25 years old or older; a maternal age of less than 15 years, as compared with an age of at least 25 years (relative risk, 6.8); no prenatal care as compared with early prenatal care (relative risk, 10.4); and less than 12 years of education among mothers who were at least 17 years old (relative risk, 8.0), as compared with 16 or more years of education.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/339/17/1211
The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics reveals more than one third of America's children are being raised by one biological parent who very often has a live-in boyfriend or girlfriend, or eventual step-parent. Statistically speaking, children raised in these settings have a forty percent greater chance of being abused than children living with both biological parents
FACTS-Just the FACTS- LIST ONLY- NO DISCUSSION -FACTS ONLY - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community
Kidsearch Network believes that Immediate Response by an experienced search team is necessary. because, 1) there is typically over a two hour delay in making the initial missing child report (60%), and 2) the vast majority (74%) of the abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction. (Source: Attorney General of the State of Washington, who did a study of cases reported to law enforcement in 1997)
http://www.kidsearchnetwork.org/research-statistics.h
http://www.psychiatrymmc.com/displayArticle.cfm?articleID=article313