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25 Berkeley J. Crim. L. 72 (2020)
Hot-Car Deaths and Forgotten-Baby Syndrome: A Case against Prosecution

handle is hein.journals/bjcl25 and id is 72 raw text is: Hot-Car Deaths and Forgotten-Baby Syndrome: A Case Against Prosecution Erika Breitfeld* This article calls on prosecutors and policymakers to re-examine their perception and treatment of parents who forget their children in cars. It offers prosecutors a guide on how to analyze these cases and urges them to advocate for reform in their communities. For support, the article explores the neuroscience behind forgetting a child. It also examines recent cases to identify three categories ofparents in hot-car child deaths: parents who truly forget their children in the car, parents who take calculated risks because they are uneducated about the danger of leaving children in cars, and parents who commit criminally negligent and intentional filicide. Finally, the article argues that fundamental criminal- law principles do not support a finding of criminal responsibility against truly forgedJul parents and argues that prosecutors should use community engagement along with existing safety and educational tools to reduce the ranks of the first two parent groups and the number of hot- car child deaths. In tro du ction ...................................................................................... . . 7 3 I. C hild-safety features....................................................................... 75 A. The historical context of the child in the backseat............ 75 B. Understanding how this happens: the vehicle becomes a death zon e ....................................................................... . . 76 II. Good parents do forget: the neuroscience behind Forgotten Baby Sy n dro m e .............................................................................. . . 7 7 A. The brain and memory function ...................................... 78 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38NP1WJ9M. *. Erika Breitfeld is an assistant dean and associate professor of law at Western Michigan University-Cooley Law School, where she teaches criminal law and advocacy. Before teaching, she was an assistant prosecuting attorney. She has prosecuted hundreds of cases and has long advocated for victims, especially children.

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