Abusive Head Trauma in Child Maltreatment-Related Homicide Cases in the United States: An Analysis of the National Violent Death Reporting System Data- 2012–2017

Background In the U.S., there are approximately 1,300 abusive head trauma (AHT) cases reported annually, with 25% of them fatal. Objective This is a descriptive study of child maltreatment (CM)-related homicides resulting from AHT. Methods Data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) for 2012–2017 were used to describe child homicide cases resulting from AHT of children aged 0–17 years. Results During 2012–2017, among the 1,957 deaths from CM-related homicides, 230 resulted from AHT. More than half of the victims of AHT were male children, and greater than half of the AHT-related deaths were perpetrated by males, with fathers as the perpetrator in 43% of the cases. In addition, more than one-third of AHT victims (44%), as well as perpetrators (36%), were White, non-Hispanic. Almost half of AHT victims had a previous history of abuse, 37% had a nonfatal injury prior to their death, and 22% of their deaths were precipitated by child’s crying behavior. Conclusion This paper describes the prevalence of AHT deaths from 2012 to 2017 data, along with multiple risk factors that are associated with victim death AHT and perpetration of this type of maltreatment. These findings can inform targeted prevention strategies for the most extreme forms of AHT, those that result in child death.