Medical Humanities/Society and Ethics Doctoral Studentship. (360G-Wellcome-108603_Z_15_Z)

My key goals are to ascertain the main reasons behind fathers killing their children, the factors which contributed to a successful insanity plea, the extent to which the insanity plea was gendered with regards to infanticide, the extent to which the crime of infanticide itself was gendered, the role of the medical establishment in the court and attaining a successful insanity plea and the role of the media and public opinion in attaining a successful insanity plea. I intend to carry out my re search in London, Liverpool and Manchester using the same methods of research in each city. I will begin by looking at local assize court records for cases of child murder and infanticide committed by men and I will then look up these cases in local and national newspapers. I will explore medical treatises on both infanticide and insanity across the period to track the change in medical opinion concerning these issues to see if they are reflected in the outcome of the insanity pleas. I estimate that I would spend the majority of my first year at the archives I have named collecting primary material.