In his autobiography, Forty Years of Murder, the forensic pathologist Professor Keith Simpson noted on several occasions that both judges and juries in the UK tended to be sympathetic towards women who killed their own children. Attitudes seem to have hardened in recent years, something that may be explained by the change in family structures. More sympathy to be found for a married woman with sole responsibility for domestic and child-care duties than for a single-by-choice mother, or a divorced one with a live-in boyfriend.