State Team Report Reviews All Child Deaths in 2006,
Includes Analysis of Homicides of Very Young Children

Available as a PDF Document.

Iowa’s multidisciplinary Child Death Review Team has issued its annual report reviewing all child deaths in 2006. The report reviews the circumstances and causes of deaths of 382 children and recommends how officials might reduce child deaths in the future.

This is the twelfth annual report of the Child Death Review Team (see Inset 1), which has now reviewed almost 5,000 child deaths, starting in the year 1995. In his foreword to the latest report, issued in December 2007, chair Lon Walker reflected on the team’s efforts over its twelve years of existence and declared, “The loss of a child is the loss of a future, and we need to do what we can to preserve Iowa’s future” (page 2).

The Child Death Review Team (CDRT) has five classifications for child deaths: natural, accidental, homicide, undetermined, and suicide (page 18). The vast majority of deaths (62 percent in 2006) are categorized as natural, which the report defines as “the result of some natural processes, such as disease, prematurity/im­ma­turity or congenital defect.” The team classified another 20 percent of the 2006 deaths as accidental – meaning “the death resulted from some unintentional act.”

Prevent Child Abuse Iowa has reviewed the December 2007 report and the preceding eleven reports to see what they reveal about child deaths that are the result of homicide – defined as a death that “was caused at the hands of another individual but was not necessarily with the intent to kill.” The 2006 report listed fourteen children as the victim of homicide, with five of those child victims being less than seven years old.

PCA Iowa’s review of CDRT reports for 1995-2006 examines the number of young child homicide victims, the disproportionate number of victims who are very young, the most common causes and perpetrators of these homicides, and CDRT recommendations to prevent future homicides.

Number of Homicides of Young Children

According to the CDRT reports, 106 Iowa children under the age of seven years were homicide victims from 1995 through 2006 – an annual average of a little more than nine young child victims.

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CHART 1

Homicides of Young Children in Iowa, 1995-2006

The Disproportionate Number of Victims Who Are Very Young

Very young children are disproportionately the victims of homicide. Over the last seven years on which the CDRT has reported (2000-2006), 25 of the 100 child homicide victims were one year old or younger – a victimization rate that is six times higher than the rate for children age one through seventeen years.

National figures from the United States Administration on Children and Families compare the rates, by child’s age, of fatal maltreatment – a similar, though different, measure than the CDRT homicide category. According to the Administration’s most recent report on child abuse, Child Maltreatment 2005, 41.7 percent of the reported 2005 victims of fatal child maltreatment were less than one year old – a victimization rate that is twelve times their proportion in the population compared to that for children age one through seventeen years.

The Causes and Perpetrators of Young Child Homicides

The CDRT determines and reports the cause of each homicide. According to team reports, from 1995-2006, 47 of the homicides of young children (45.2 percent) resulted from a brain injury, usually from being shaken/slammed. This number includes two young children who died from being shaken/slammed in 2006. The number of shaking/slamming deaths ranged from highs of nine in 1997 and eight in 2000 to a low of one each in 1999 and 2002. Thirty of these 47 shaken/slammed deaths involved children who were one year old or younger.

The other 57 child homicide victims died from a wide range of identified causes, including blunt trauma to the abdomen or head (10), drowning (7), gunshot wound (7), being beaten/battered (5), abandonment or exposure (4), and motor vehicle (4). Two of the deaths were undetermined (see Table 1).

TABLE 1

Causes of Young Child Homicides, 1995-2006

Both the Iowa House and Senate have bills before them in 2008 that will address the leading cause of young child homicides – being shaken/slammed. These bills, SF 349 and HF 2058, would establish a statewide program of education for parents and other caretakers. Passage of this legislation is one of Prevent Child Abuse Iowa’s advocacy agenda items.

The CDRT reports the relationship of the perpetrators of homicides to their child victims. Table 2 summarizes its findings for 1995 through 2006. Thirty-four biological fathers were responsible for young child homicides, as were 25 men who were the male paramours of the child victim’s mother. The next most common perpetrators were biological mothers (21 homicides) and sitters or child care providers (9 homicides). The perpetrators of five of the young child homicides have not been determined.

TABLE 2

Perpetrators of Young Child Homicides, 1995-2006

Recommendations to Reduce Homicides of Young Children

Each CDRT report recommends how to reduce child deaths from all causes. These are some of the strategies that the CDRT recommends specifically for reducing child homicides:

1. Helping parents cope with the stresses of parenting very young children. The CDRT observes that the homicides of very young children are “often an indicator of frustration on the part of the parent or caregiver” (page 24). The report observes that fatal abuse of a crying or difficult child “could have been prevented if the care provider had put the child in a safe place and walked away or used other positive means to defuse the situation” (page 5).

The CDRT states that:

Childcare is stressful, and when these stresses escalate, caregivers need someone to call or some other outlet. Information about these resources should be given to all new parents before or after the baby’s birth to help prevent future child homicides. Early intervention could save lives (page 24).

The report also recommends public service announcements about the importance of parents or other caretakers taking a “time out” when childcare stresses become overwhelming. Further, according to the CDRT, “After the birth of every new infant, parents should be given a list of respite care resources/options and emergency numbers at the time of hospital discharge. These resources should also be discussed at prenatal visits” (page 25).

Inset 2 provides information on the respite child care programs in Iowa funded through the Iowa Child Abuse Prevention Program, which PCA Iowa directs.

2. Showing care in the selection of caretakers. CDRT reports usually address the particular risk to children from male paramours or other unrelated caretakers. In this regard, the December 2007 report recommends that: “Mothers should be cautioned about careful selection of individuals who care for their children, most especially paramours” (page 24). To assist in this selection, the report notes that local police departments have criminal history reports. Iowa

criminal records are also available online at www.iowacourtsonline.org.

3. Practice recommendations for the Department of Human Services. The most recent CDRT report recommends several DHS practices that could help prevent child homicides, including:

• “Long term close monitoring of children” after children are returned to their parental homes or after a parent has returned from incarceration (page 12)
• Giving “special attention” to situations involving parental substance abuse and “unsafe surroundings” in a child’s home (page 12)
• Removing children less than four years old “from unsafe family situations while parents work to improve the home environment” (page 13)
• Close follow-up with a family for one year after a child is returned, including “frequent visits to the home” (page 13)

Available as a PDF Document.

For general comments and questions, please contact:

Prevent Child Abuse Iowa
505 Fifth Avenue, Suite 900
Des Moines, Iowa 50309
Phone: 515-244-2200
Toll Free: 800-237-1815
Fax: 515-280-7835
Email:

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