Pediatric Homicide: Medical Investigation PDF

Preface

This book is dedicated to the medical investigation of homicides in infants and young children. Specifically, the goal of this book is to provide a scientific basis for the diagnoses of inflicted injury and death in infants and young children. The cause of death in infants and children is often subtle and the diagnoses difficult to establish. This is true for inflicted and accidental injury as well as for natural disease. By providing reviews of the medical literature on the more problematic causes of inflicted injury in childhood, this book will help to provide a scientific foundation for making the diagnosis of homicide or for ruling out that diagnosis. In spite of our current level of knowledge, there will continue to be many instances where an exact cause of death cannot be established.

The medical aspects are only part of the total investigation in childhood deaths and injury. The physician should not make a final diagnosis without detailed knowledge of the totality of the scene investigation and witness interviews. The physician and investigator must invest the time for not only a careful investigation, but also a careful review and exchange of information.

Not included in this book are two of the more obvious and increasingly prevalent causes of death in children, gunshot and stab wounds. These causes of injury and death are easily diagnosed and well covered in other texts.