Men Committing Female Crime: Infanticide, family and honor in Italy, 1890-1981

Abstract

Infanticide is usually considered as a typically female offence. This gendered characterization is often used to explain why, in the second half of the nineteenth century, this crime was transformed from a serious one, punished with death penalty, to a lesser offence. It has been argued that punishment was reduced because of the unfortunate conditions of the murderess. And historical studies have usually portrayed the offender as a woman who was seduced and abandoned. This article will demonstrate instead that Italian legislation, beginning with the first Penal Code in 1890, mandated light punishment above all for the benefit of the men who killed an infant to defend their male honor. This was even more apparent under the Fascist law of 1930 until 1981 when honor was dropped as an extenuating circumstance. Only then infanticide became a female, maternal crime. Yet, the new Italian law has many flaws.