Motherhood and Filicide

AP News/Columbus Dispatch article entitled "Moms Killing Kids Not as Rare as You Think" describes filicide, or killing one's own child. Several databases track such killings but do not separate mothers from fathers or stepfathers. Filicide is not as rare as the media would make us believe! At the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System reported an estimated 1,740 child fatalities - meaning when a child dies from an injury caused by abuse or neglect - in 2008. According to numbers compiled from 16 states by the National Violent Death Reporting System at the CDC Injury Center, 130 children were killed in those states by a parent in 2008, the last year for which numbers were available. How can resources be made available for mothers or fathers who feel an urge to hurt or kill their child? What ways can the community intervene?