How Does Economic Inequality Affect Infanticide Rates? An Analysis of 15 Years of Death Records and Representative Economic Data

Abstract

Background: Is there a relationship between economic inequality and infanticide rates? Few studies have examined the socioeconomic factors that trigger infanticide. This study aims to statistically analyze the effect of these factors on infanticide rates. Methods: This study used infant death records in South Korea from 2003 to 2017 to assess the impact of unemployment rates and various statistical indicators (e.g., GDP and income inequality index) on the rate of infanticide. A generalized additive model and a quasi-Poisson regression were used for statistical analyses. Results: A time-trend analysis shows that the infanticide rate tended to grow despite a decreasing trend in the quarterly infant mortality rate. A 1% increase in the unemployment rate is associated with a significant rise in the relative risk of infanticide after a lag of two quarters. Relative risks increased significantly three and four quarters after a 0.1 rise in the p80/p20 ratio (income inequality index). Conclusions: Policymakers should pay attention to socioeconomic factors while formulating healthcare regulations to protect potential infanticide victims, including vulnerable infants and their parents.

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“… 10 Thus, the issue of whether the sex of the firstborn children predicts the risk of developing breast cancer and its prognosis remain unresolved to date.Several cultures evidence a preference for male children owing to a variety of socioeconomic, cultural, and biological factors wherein infanticide has become a method of sex selection. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 With widespread parental preference for a male firstborn child, 17 studies suggesting that female newborns jeopardize maternal health could be readily exploited to legitimize practices, such as female infanticide. This illustrates how biology (sex) contours sociocultural constructs (gender), and it illustrates how our study may debunk sociocultural beliefs pertaining to female inferiority that were previously validated by scientific research.…”

Existential Threats of Immigration and Terrorism Predict Voting for Brexit and Trump

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