Study finds family members are most common perpetrators of infant and child homicides in the US

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Study finds family members are most common perpetrators of infant and child homicides in the US

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********* is a

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of ****** among people 19 and younger in the ******* States, and firearms are used in a large proportion of these *******. Although the ********* rate for this population declined in the 1990s and 2000s, it has

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every year since 2013, with a

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during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, new research by Hannah Rochford, Ph.D., an assistant professor with the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, and two colleagues from the University of Iowa, provides insight into the characteristics of those who committed these ******* and their use of firearms from 1976 to 2020.

“The more national-level information we have about these perpetrators, the better we can develop comprehensive, evidence-based public health policies and prevention strategies,” Rochford said.

“Unfortunately, the data has lagged behind data that is known for most other public health challenges. For example, the

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did not exist at all before 2003, did not include a majority of states until 2015, and still does not fully represent violent deaths in all states. This makes it difficult to learn from past trends, like the

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of the late 1980s and early 1990s.”

For their

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, published in Injury Epidemiology, the researchers sought to fill these gaps by describing trends between 1976-2020 in perpetrator characteristics (****, age and relationship to victim) and firearm presence by the age, ****, and race of U.S. ********* victims from birth to 19 years of age.

To do so, researchers applied the

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version of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s

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(SHR).

“The unimputed SHR is limited by ‘unit missingness’ because not every law enforcement agency provides data for the reports every year, and ‘item missingness’ because some ********* incidents were missing case information,” Rochford said. “For example, more than one quarter of ********* incidents were missing information on the perpetrator’s age, **** and race.”

After stratifying the descriptive analyses by victim age group, ****, race and five-year time periods, the team found that family members were the most common perpetrator of infant and toddler (ages 0–4) and child (ages 5–12) homicides, and acquaintances accounted for the majority of adolescent (ages 13–19) homicides. One quarter of adolescent homicides with female victims were perpetrated by an intimate partner.

The team found there was a sustained increase in the proportion of homicides committed with a firearm. From 2016 to 2020, the proportion of homicides that involved firearms was an all-time high across the study ******* for three categories: infants and toddlers at 14.8%, children at 53.1%, and adolescents at 88.5%. Firearm ********* was particularly burdensome to ****** pediatric victims, with ****** infants and toddlers experiencing twice the burden as White infants and toddlers, for example.

“These differences appear to align with developmental changes in family dependency and interaction, peer and romantic relations, and age-related role independence,” Rochford said. “For example, ****** female family members were responsible for more than a quarter of all infant and toddler homicides, but for less than 1% of adolescent homicides.”

Rochford said these findings indicate that policy interventions that improve family stability and well-being may be most effective at preventing infant, toddler and child homicides, and programs that target peer and community relationships, as well as policies that focus on firearm access, may be more crucial for preventing adolescent homicides.

More information:
Mark T. Berg et al, Perpetrator characteristics and firearm use in pediatric homicides: Supplementary ********* Reports – ******* States, 1976 to 2020, Injury Epidemiology (2024).

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Provided by
Texas A&M University

Citation:
Study finds family members are most common perpetrators of infant and child homicides in the US (2024, September 23)
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