Infanticide, a mother’s crime : expert evidence and infanticide cases, 1688-1955

Dixon-Goodall, Rachel Emma

Abstract

“Infanticide: A Mother’s Crime” explores expert evidence in cases of infanticide with a view to determining the extent of certainty, created by medical men who founded their evidence on anatomical exploration and science. As the thesis progresses, it becomes clear that medical men were unable to scientifically establish cause of death, and in doing so convey certainty; instead medical men conveyed uncertainty. However, rather than being seen as a professional failing, this thesis will argue, that the uncertainty created by medical men made a positive contribution to infanticide cases. The combination of uncertainty created by medical experts and the changing perceptions of infanticidal women by the court, allowed the jury to find infanticidal women not guilty of a capital offence. A number of cases demonstrate that the jury found the women guilty of the lesser offence of concealment of birth; a favourable outcome for both the women and the collective conscience of the jury.
This research begins in the year 1688 with an examination of evidence given by the midwife. In the absence of medical reasoning or discourse, she gave evidence based purely on her experience and knowledge, until the eighteenth century when the courts seemed to demand greater certainty from expert evidence. As the midwife was replaced in the courtroom by medical men, during the eighteenth century, this research will continue by drawing on the testimony of medical men, mental state experts and pathologists until its conclusion in 1955. The longevity of this research has been divided into forty or fifty year periods, allowing the testimony to be examined within each period, and timeframes to be compared over a substantial period of time. Cases have been examined both within and outside the London area, by drawing on examples
from the Old Bailey and Hull and the surrounding area.

Citation

Dixon-Goodall, R. E. (2017). Infanticide, a mother’s crime : expert evidence and infanticide cases, 1688-1955. (Thesis). University of Hull. Retrieved from https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4224389

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 1, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 24, 2023
• Keywords: Law
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4224389
• Additional Information: Law School, The University of Hull
• Award Date: Sep 1, 2017