Infanticide, Neonaticide and Post-neonaticide: Racial/ethnic Disparities in the United States.

Abstract This study aims to assess recent trends and characteristics for infanticide and the sub-groups: neonaticide and post-neonaticide during the time period 2003–2017. Multiple Cause-of-Death Mortality Data were used to identify infanticides in the United States based on ICD-10 codes. Joinpoint regression analysis was used to calculate trends in the rates of infanticide, neonaticide and post-neonaticide during the study period. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between the socio-demographic characteristics and each of the outcomes. During the study period, 4,545 (1.2%) infants were identified as being victims of infanticide. The rates of neonaticide declined by 4.2% over the study period, whereas that of infanticide and post-neonaticide remained statistically unchanged. Males and Non-Hispanic (NH) Blacks were more likely to be victims of infanticide and post-neonaticide, compared to females and NH-Whites respectively, but had similar likelihood of neonaticide. While foreign-born residents exhibited nearly a four-fold increased likelihood of neonaticide, they had about 70% lesser likelihood of post-neonaticide than US born residents. Conclusion: Reasons for the disparities found in this study are multifactorial. We believe that access to healthcare needs to be improved and community resources need to be made more available to address the proposed mechanisms that lead to infanticide.