Word List

Abandonment: to abandon is to leave behind. It is a crime for parents to leave a child. This is called abandonment.

Bastardy Laws: bastard is an old word for the child of parents who are not married. The bastardy laws were made so that men who fathered children with unmarried women would have to support their children.

Bond of Affiliation: to be affiliated with someone is to be connected with or related to them. A bond of affiliation was a legal paper that said a man was the father of a child. This was used to make the man pay child support under the bastardy laws.

Clemency: kindness or mercy.

Concealment of Birth: the crime of hiding the fact that a woman has given birth to a baby. Women were only charged with concealment of birth if the baby died. Charging a woman with concealment of birth let the courts deal with these cases without having to find out if the woman had caused the death of her baby.

Infanticide: the killing of a baby (or infant). This is the crime of killing a baby, most often at birth.

Premature: means something happens before it is supposed to. A premature baby is one that is born before the full term (nine months) of a normal pregnancy. Premature babies have more health problems than full term babies.

Manslaughter: the crime of killing someone without meaning to. It is a less serious crime than murder.

Suspended Sentence: when a court punishes someone by sending them to prison, that is called a sentence. When the sentence is suspended, the person does not have to go to prison. This is a way to reduce the punishment.