Characteristics, Classification, and Prevention of Child Maltreatment Fatalities

Abstract

There is currently no roadmap for the prevention of child maltreatment death, but increased awareness and improved fatality review are essential to improving policies and practices. Prevention strategies include improving fatality review recommendations, using psychological autopsies, serious case reviews, and conducting research. We recommend a public health approach to prevention, which includes a high level of collaboration between agencies, particularly between the military and civilian. The adoption of a public health model can promote better prevention strategies at individual, family, community, and societal levels to address and improve practices, policies, and public attitudes and beliefs about child maltreatment. The process of making recommendations on the basis of fatality review is important in terms of whether they will be taken seriously. Recommendations that are too numerous, impractical, expensive, lack relevance, and are out of step with social norms are unlikely to be implemented. They can be helpful if they are limited, focused, lead to definitive action, and include ways of measuring compliance.

An Epidemiologic Examination of Perpetrators of Fatal Child Maltreatment Using the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)

“…These stressors, such as excessive crying during infancy, prolonged toilet training, challenges securing and paying for childcare, and unrealistic expectations of the child based on their age and development, decrease with child age (Miyamoto et al, 2017;Smithey, 2002;Theodore et al, 2005), as does the risk of fatal maltreatment (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al, 2018). Corresponding to these stressors are three forms of fatal child maltreatment: neonaticide, the murder of a child in the first 24 hours of life; infanticide, the murder of a child in the first year of life; and filicide, the murder of a child aged 18 years and below (Friedman & Friedman, 2010;Mariano, Chan, & Myers, 2014;McCarroll, Fisher, Cozza, Robichaux, & Fullerton, 2017;Resnick, 1969;Smithey, 2002;Weekes-Shackelford & Shackelford, 2004).…”

Experiences and perspectives of women who have committed neonaticide, infanticide and filicide: A systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis

“…Tanaka et al ( 2016 ) documented the worldwide incidence of neonaticide, while Shelton et al ( 2011 ) outlined its characteristics from a law enforcement perspective. Classification of children's fatal maltreatment, risk and protective factors, and strategies of prevention have also been investigated (McCarroll et al, 2017 ) along with reviews that focused only on cases of filicide towards children with disabilities (Frederick et al, 2019 ) or congenital abnormalities such as cleft palate (Stewart et al, 2018 ). The personality and attachment style of filicidal mothers has been explored (Lattanzi et al, 2020 ) along with possible predictors of maternal filicide such as suicidality and depression or psychosis (Friedman et al, 2005 ).…”

Association of Child Maltreatment With Risk of Death During Childhood in South Australia

“…The association of death with child abuse and neglect has been studied primarily through detailed case reviews. [15][16][17][18] Statutory review committees on death during childhood have been established in many jurisdictions to examine the circumstances of deaths among children to inform strategies to reduce potentially avoidable deaths. [19][20][21] A recent study by such a committee revealed that deaths among children with family-level child protection system (CPS) involvement (child, sibling, or parent) were associated with a substantially higher proportion of deaths coded as "undetermined/sudden infant death" or "external cause" than deaths with no CPS connection.…”