A study of child homicide over two decades

The child homicides which were notified to the Leeds University Department of Forensic Medicine between 1970 and 1989 were studied. There were 131 cases, and information regarding age of victim, mode of death and post-mortem evidence of previous abuse was noted. The incidences of child homicide varied between 3 and 11 cases per year; the first three years of life providing the majority of cases. Blunt injury accounted for almost half of the deaths, whilst 34 per cent of cases showed evidence of previous physical or sexual abuse. In infant homicide (i.e. under one year of age) a pattern emerged which has previously been described as the 'shaken baby syndrome'.