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Article: Discourses of female criminality: Suzanne Jacob's L'Obeissance, a novel of infanticide/filicide.
- Article from:
- Quebec Studies
- Article date:
- September 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 American Council for Quebec Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Although it is commonplace to refer to the killing of any child--newborn or older--by either parent as infanticide, current legal definitions of infanticide and filicide are well defined and are quite country-specific. According to Black's Law Dictionary as used in the United States' legal system, for example, infanticide is: "1. The act of killing a newborn child, esp. by the parents or with their consent. In archaic usage, the word referred also to the killing of an unborn child.--also termed child destruction; neonaticide. 2. The practice of killing newborn children. 3. One who kills a newborn child" (781). Other U.S. legal experts have defined infanticide as the term ...