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Recent study In infanticide parents are usually the culprits
When small children are kidnapped, abused or killed, many people quickly have arguments against "strangers". However, a new study of young victims of violent crimes shows that the perpetrators are in most cases fathers, mothers or their new life partners.
Your own child is kidnapped and murdered
For most mothers and fathers, it should probably be one of the worst nightmares ever: The own child is kidnapped by a stranger and murdered. For some, this is unfortunately a reality. For example, the parents of four-year-old Mohamed and parents of six-year-old Elijah were given terrible certainty in November: After his arrest, a 32-year-old from Brandenburg confessed to having taken refugee boy Mohamed at the State Office for Health and Social Affairs (Lageso) in Berlin and killed him , He also acknowledged later admitted that he had killed the missing in Potsdam since June Elias. In addition, the alleged murderer Mohamed also sexually abused. The fate of the two boys shook the whole republic.
Image: şiddet - fotolia Killing offenses on children examined
Countless children often suffer sexual violence at an early age. Only a few months ago research was published, according to which ten percent of adults in this country were sexually abused as a child. Many victims do not live that long, they are killed. As reported by the news agency dpa, a team at the Kriminologische Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen (KFN) has been analyzing the homicides of children in Germany for eight years. KFN Director Thomas Bliesener said that one of the goals of the project is to develop strategies for prevention. The study of under six year old victims has already been completed. According to the information currently running a follow-up project, which takes the killed children between six and 13 years in the view.
Offenders from the "absolute social proximity"
"Some offenses come in the public perception strongly in the foreground, but they are very rare," said Bliesener. "Cases like the murders of Mohamed and Elias are the absolute exception," added former project manager, Ulrike Zähringer. The expert was involved in evaluating the criminal records on all six-year-olds killed nationwide in the period from 1997 to 2006. "We examined the data on 535 victims. Among them were no sexual offenses and not a real foreign offender, "said the criminologist. "Rather, the perpetrators always came from the absolute social proximity of children, in most cases, it was the parents or their new life partner."
Immediately after the birth killed
According to research, the largest group of 199 victims (37 percent) were children killed by their mothers immediately after birth. It is said that these women had previously concealed their pregnancy or completely repressed it and were surprised by the birth. "It's hard to say which prevention offerings could help here," said Zähringer. 15 years ago, the first baby hatch was set up in Hamburg. In the meantime, there are several dozen such thermal beds in the whole of Germany, where women can place their unwanted babies anonymously after birth. "But you have to inform and plan in advance," explained the criminologist. "Women were not capable of doing that in the cases we examined."
Family helpers should receive special training
It is also frightening to realize that about a quarter of the babies and toddlers killed were mistreated to death. Again, the perpetrators were in most cases the biological or social parents, in every fifth case, the stepfather or partner of the mother. In the current case of the forcibly killed little Tayler from Hamburg are also the mother or their life partner under suspicion. Rainer Becker, head of the German children's aid, has accused the Hamburg authorities of grave omissions: it is said that the one-year-old boy had already been taken from the family on suspicion of child maltreatment but had been returned. According to Becker, every family helper must receive training on behalf of the Youth Welfare Office to correctly assess the signs of injury in children: "What speaks for an accident? What speaks for violence? "Doctors reported years ago that in this country up to 200 children die each year from shaking trauma, which in some cases is not clearly recognized. In most cases it is inflicted on the little ones by parents who want to bring the crying baby to rest.
Number of children killed is declining
Almost 13 percent of the small children in the study of the KFN were victims of an extended suicide. "There are warning signs in front of these acts, for which the police, youth welfare offices, but also the general population should be sensitized", so KFN boss Bliesener. "Families often withdraw for a while before the crime, sometimes the children do not go to school." There are sometimes even announcements by the perpetrator that he is going to take the family home with them. Often the background is a separation drama.
The scientists are currently analyzing the files of the 6- to 13-year-olds killed between 1997 and 2012. "There are no final figures yet, but as it currently looks, a large proportion of older children are killed in advanced suicides," said Zähringer. Although in contrast to those under the age of six now also sex offenders and foreign offenders, but this case group is very small. According to police crime statistics, the number of children killed is steadily decreasing. In the past year 46 were killed among six-year-olds and 17 six- to thirteen-year-olds, in 2004 there were still 85 younger and 35 older girls and boys. In 1997, a total of 148 victims were registered. According to Zähringer, the reasons can only be speculated. The decline may have had to do with an increased sensitivity to the phenomenon of violence against children. Or with better medical care, which allows more victims of serious violence to survive. (Ad)