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A recent tragic event: Mother accused of killing three children in Massachusetts
The Culture War angle: Following this event some TikTok accounts have released videos in support of the mother and voicing concern over mothers and their mental health, leading to discussion. Examples: https://postimg.cc/NKpX61ty, https://postimg.cc/vxT8d6jK, https://postimg.cc/CnnyNC9w, https://postimg.cc/8FvttKzK, https://postimg.cc/TK6wKhWK, https://postimg.cc/K3cXXSKv
Considering the nature of the crime I find the wording in the TikTok's off putting. This isn't phrased as something the mother, Lindsay Clancy 'did'. It's something that 'happened to her' and that she 'needs support'.
On a tangential note: This reminds me of an older sex war question surrounding female violence towards children and how women are treated in society. Specifically the terminology of SIDS. Sudden Infrant Death Syndrome. Which became a notable issue when multiple women who murdered their own children ended up, after a few years, being released scot-free. Neven Sesardić, a Croatian philosopher, wrote a very interesting article published in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. Specifically relating to Sally Clark, a woman in the UK who was accused of murdering two of her children, and some relevant statistical analysis that cast aspersions on the validity of SIDS as it was relied on by expert witnesses to defend Clark in court. Along with leveraging statistical critiques against the Royal Statistical Society.
The tangential relevance here is whether or not Lindsay Clancy will be afforded similar legal leniency on top of everything else. Though with the hellish nature of the crime, one could only really hope for punishments that far exceed all the comforts that a lifetime in a women's prison will afford her.
However terrible this crime is, I'm not sure she should be imprisoned.
Consider the multiple punishment purposes: (1) incapacitation, (2) deterrence, (3) restitution, (4) rehabilitation and (5) vengeance.
Incapacitation seems insignificant. Family annihilators do not necessarily kill people outside the family, especially not for a time after the event. It is very unlikely that social care will allow her to start a new family with children. Can such a crazy criminal commit other crimes because of their insanity or lack of impulse control? Again, I will say that this is unlikely, from the stories of other family annihilators who were often completely normal until they were suddenly not.
Deterrence is unlikely. Would any punishment stop someone from doing something so crazy? I would emphasize that she was crazy when she murdered her children and was immune to reason or consequences. Deterrence works against rational actors, not literal crazy dogs. There is even a case for wandering towards the penalty side to prevent feigned unreason, but she literally murdered her children. It's as crazy and irrational as possible.
Restitution is irrelevant without significant advances in biotechnology.
Rehabilitation is similar to incapacitation: she will not have a similar opportunity, so rehabilitation (even if it works, which can not be slightly assumed) does not matter.
I see vengeance as a subtype of deterrence that our evolutionary environment has integrated deep into our minds. There may be a pro-social reason to punish criminals even if it does not serve any of the above rational purposes. It can bind the public and signal a commitment to deterrence. But I do not believe that we are already in our evolutionary environment, and its adaptations are no longer necessarily adaptation to civilized people. When there is a conflict between deeply illegible emotions and reasonable thought, we should pay respect to our emotions but not allow them to govern us entirely.
It sounds cold, but one of the people the most damaged by it is herself. No one feels the loss of a child more than his parent. And her genes will not pass on to the next generation, which is a double incapacitating and deterrent effect. I won’t get as far as TikTokkers and say she deserves compassion—she is a terrible, bad being. But I will say that I am not at all sure what purpose a further punishment is for.
Have you seen the documentary Dear Zachary? This was almost exactly the reasoning used when keeping Shirley Turner out of prison after murdering her boyfriend, that she was unlikely to hurt anyone else. Of course she went on to kill her son.
Point being, people doing this are sufficiently abnormal that trying to predict their future behavior and saying “She would never do this again” seems really really unwise.. There is no way you can convince me that Bayes doesn’t say she has a far higher risk of murdering again than an average woman. She has done a couple lifetimes worth of damage already, what is the benefit of keeping her free? Just lock her up, throw away the key and we never have to worry about her again
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