Fatal child maltreatment in England, 2005–2009

Abstract

Fatal child maltreatment in England 2 Authors' ContributionsThe original idea for this paper came from Peter Sidebotham, who carried out the primary analysis and wrote the first and subsequent drafts of the paper.Sue Bailey and Pippa Belderson carried out the data extraction and coding and contributed to the analysis and to reviews of drafts of the paper.Marian Brandon had oversight of the main research project and contributed to data analysis and to reviews of drafts of the paper. Conflicts of InterestThe authors are all involved in ongoing analysis of Serious Case Reviews in England. There are no other conflicts of interest. FundingThis project was funded by grants from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now Department for Education), UK Government. The Department for Children, Schools and Families provided access to all data used in this study. The study design, the interpretation of the results and the decision to submit for publication rested solely with the authors. Fatal child maltreatment in England 3 AbstractObjective: This paper presents comprehensive and up-to-date data covering four years of Serious Case Reviews into fatal child maltreatment in England. Methods: Information on all notified cases of fatal maltreatment between April 2005 and March 2009was examined to obtain case characteristics related to a systemic classification of five broad groups of maltreatment deaths (severe physical assaults; covert homicide/infanticide; overt homicide; extreme neglect/deprivational abuse; deaths related to but not directly caused by maltreatment).Results: A total of 276 cases was recorded giving an incidence of 0.63 cases per 100,000 children (0-17) per year. 246 cases could be classified based on the data available. Of these the commonest specific group was those children who died as a result of severe physical assaults. Apparently deliberate overt and covert homicide was less common, whilst deaths as a direct consequence of neglect were rare. In contrast, some evidence of neglect was found in at least 40% of all cases, though not the direct cause of death.Conclusions: Class characteristics differ between the different categories of death and may suggest the need for different strategies for prevention.

Is early detection of abused children possible?: a systematic review of the diagnostic accuracy of the identification of abused children

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The epidemiology of child homicides in South Africa

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