Child maltreatment fatalities among children and adolescents 5-17 years old

Child maltreatment-related fatalities occur among children of all ages. However, few published studies have examined child abuse and neglect deaths among older children and adolescents.

To epidemiologically describe child maltreatment-related fatalities among children in the United States 5-17 years old.

Ten years of data from the United States National Violent Death Reporting System (2006-2015) were analyzed to examine child maltreatment deaths among children 5-17 years of age.

Child fatalities attributed to homicide or undetermined causes were reviewed by the study team to identify deaths related to child abuse and/or neglect, injury mechanisms, relationships between perpetrators and victims, victim and perpetrator characteristics, and circumstances surrounding the deaths.

The study team identified 285 abuse- and/or neglect-related fatalities during the study period. The mean age of the victims was 9.2 years and 54.4 % of victims were male. Suspected perpetrators were most frequently mothers (28.1 %) and fathers (26.3 %). The most common injury mechanism was firearms (20.7 %). A significantly greater percentage of deaths among children 11-17 years were attributable to firearms (31.6 %), compared to deaths among children 5-10 years. Among younger children 5-10 years, blunt force trauma was the most frequent injury mechanism (22.6 %).

Older children and adolescents are frequently excluded from child maltreatment research. Although child maltreatment deaths are less common among older children compared to younger children, these fatalities have unique characteristics that should be considered when developing prevention strategies.