The Moral Subjectivities of Infanticidal Mothers from the Perspective of Forensic Psychiatric Nurses: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Background: Infanticide, defined as the killing of a child under 1 year of age by their mother, is a rare and complex offence. In Canada and many other jurisdictions, infanticide is a gender-specific legal offence that can only be committed by women. The phenomenon is shaped by strongly gendered social and legal attitudes that influence perceptions of women convicted of infanticide. Aim: To examine forensic psychiatric nurses’ perspectives on the moral subjectivities of mothers convicted of infanticide. Methods: A critical discourse analysis, informed by feminist and poststructuralist theory, was conducted. Five forensic psychiatric nurses who had provided care to mothers convicted of infanticide were interviewed. Interview data were analyzed to explore the discursive practices through which nurses constructed patients’ moral subjectivities. Results: Two overarching observations emerged. First, participants assessed patients’ morality through discourses linking moral worth to mental health or illness and to perceptions of maternal willfulness. Second, nurses conditioned patients’ moral identities on their behavior while in care. Patients’ expressions of grief were interpreted according to normative expectations regarding the performance of remorse, shaping nurses’ evaluations of their character and the care they received. Discussion: Findings suggest that forensic psychiatric nurses’ understandings of women convicted of infanticide are informed by gendered assumptions about morality, motherhood, and emotional expression. These assumptions influence how patients’ actions and emotions are interpreted within forensic psychiatric settings. This study highlights the importance of examining the moral and gendered frameworks that may shape nursing practice and patient care in forensic mental health contexts.