A1 Journal article (refereed)
Crimes of desperation : Poverty-related filicides in 1810-1860 (2017)

Koskivirta, A. (2017). Crimes of desperation : Poverty-related filicides in 1810-1860. Journal of Finnish Studies, 20(1), 97-131. https://doi.org/10.5406/28315081.20.1.05

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Koskivirta, Anu

Journal or series: Journal of Finnish Studies

ISSN: 1206-6516

Publication year: 2017

Volume: 20

Issue number: 1

Pages range: 97-131

Publisher: Sam Houston State University

Place of Publication: Huntsville

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5406/28315081.20.1.05

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/54819

Additional information: Poverty of the Beggar and a Nobleman : Experiencing and Encountering Impoverishment in Nineteenth-Century Finland. ISBN 978-1-937875-92-3.

Abstract

Using Finnish upper court records as a source, this article is concerned with parental child homicides, newborn infanticides excluded, committed in Finland in the period 1810 to 1860. It focuses on the development in the rate and geographical distribution of these crimes, as well as the social and gendered distribution of the perpetrators. This information forms the basis for analyzing the connection between the motivation for the crime and the pauperization that culminated in these decades as a result of a rapid population growth, which manifested itself in an increase in the landless agrarian proletariat. Dire economic distress over subsistence was a motive for over a half of all filicides. Such crimes of desperation took place especially in periods of crisis: in the years following the Finnish War (1808–09) and after crop failures in the 1830s and the late 1850s. Filicides where the victim was older than a newborn child were, however, as an object of the authorities' concern, overshadowed in the public debate by neonaticides and other major contemporary social problems.

Keywords: history; poverty; crime; infanticide

Free keywords: Finland; 19th century; Finnish War

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2017

JUFO rating: 2