Why do mothers kill? Death of child, 7, forces Indonesia to ask an uncomfortable question
- Kanti Utami, accused of slitting her children’s throats with a box cutter, told police her husband was out of work and she didn’t want them to ‘struggle in life’
- Experts say maternal filicide is driven by factors from mental illness and a history of domestic violence to economic pressures and even a misplaced sense of altruism
Kanti Utami, 35, is suspected of murdering her 7-year-old child in the village of Dukuh Sokawera in the Brebes regency of Central Java on Sunday and injuring her two other children, aged four and 10.
Neighbours ran to the scene when they heard the children’s screams in the early hours of the morning. They told police they had found Utami covered in blood and brandishing a box cutter that she had allegedly used to slit her children’s throats.
Utami reportedly told police that she was “not crazy” but that her husband was often out of work and she did not want her children to suffer.
“I wanted to save my children so they didn’t struggle in life. They didn’t need to feel sad. They had to die so they wouldn’t become sad like me,” she said.
As a result of Utami’s comments, there has been speculation as to why she may have committed such a heinous crime, particularly as maternal filicide is relatively uncommon globally.
“Murder cases committed by a mother against her children are included in the maternal filicide category,” Irna Minauli, a psychologist based in Medan, North Sumatra said.
“Research has found that maternal filicide occurs due to a constellation of factors such as mental disorders, problems in relationships and domestic violence. In cases where mothers commit such murders, they are generally victims of previous violence, especially when they were children.”
An altruistic act?
“One kind of filicide is altruistic filicide, where a mother kills her child out of love, believing that they are saving their child from a fate worse than death,” she added.
Pictures that circulated on social media showed Utami working at weddings and other special events that have experienced a downturn in the last two years due to coronavirus restrictions.
Berlian Simarmata, a lecturer in criminal law at Santo Thomas Catholic University in Medan, recalled a similar case in 1997 at the time of the Asian Financial Crisis in which a pedicab driver killed his children with a mixture of rat poison and rice because he could no longer afford to care for them.
Women are taught to bear the burdens they face alone
“Under Indonesian law, if the police decided that this was premeditated murder, the maximum possible sentence is the death penalty,” he said of Utami’s case.
“The law does not stipulate that a parent killing their own child is more serious than other types of murder, but a sentencing judge may take into account that a parent is primarily meant to protect their child.”
The lecturer added, however, that a full psychiatric evaluation was needed before charges could be brought.
South Korean stalker murders three women, lives in their flat for three days
Of sound mind?
“The key to this case is whether it can be determined if she was of sound mind when she committed the crime,” he said.
“Did her mental state play a part in the killing or not? She said when she was arrested that she wasn’t crazy.”
Minauli said many women who killed their children had been experiencing severe psychosis that might have been caused by post-partum depression.
“Problems with hormonal and biological changes that occur in the early post-partum period are often accompanied by anxiety that can severely change the way people think,” she said.
The psychologist added that maternal filicide was generally carried out by mothers from low socio-economic backgrounds who were socially isolated and/or those who experienced violence at home or in their childhood.
“Various stressors such as economic, social factors, a history of violence, and problems with their partners as well as difficulties in raising children often trigger such murders,” she said.
Patriarchal system
Zuma, the director of the Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice (LBH APIK), said this was an extremely complex case that potentially highlighted social issues in Indonesia including a patriarchal system in which the bulk of childcare is left to mothers.
“Lack of support systems in Indonesia mean that women are usually responsible for childcare and raising healthy children even in situations where that is difficult. That is usually not looked at as the responsibility of the husband,” she said.
“Women are taught to bear the burdens they face alone and accept everything that is given to them, even if it is not enough to support their family.”
In 2006, a woman in Bandung, West Java, killed her three children, stating that she could no longer afford to buy food for them. A similar case occurred in December 2020, when a 30-year-old mother in North Nias regency in North Sumatra killed her three young children because she could not bear the economic burden any longer.
How the Braemar Hill murders shook Hong Kong in 1985
“In my opinion, both Utami and her children are victims here,” Zuma said. “They are victims of the system, of the culture and of circumstance.”
Zuma said, however, that even economic problems were seen as something that women should just have to put up with in Indonesia. She said people on social media had criticised Utami, suggesting a lack of religious belief that God would provide for her family had contributed to her decision to kill.
“Mothers who lack social support or help from their husbands and extended families are more prone to depression and other mental health issues because they often feel overwhelmed by having to endure stress alone,” psychologist Minauli said.
“It is important for partners and families to provide support and assistance to women, especially those who have just given birth so that they know they have someone to rely on and vent to.”
