| Child homicide has become a worldwide epidemic, killing thousands of children each year. Much of the research agrees that there are specific socio-economic and racial factors that render some children more at risk of being killed. The goal of this research was to identify both child and parental risk factors that are prevalent throughout Fresno County and suggest early intervention techniques. Archival data from child homicides committed over a 10-year period in a rural county in the Western United States were analyzed, in order to determine if any risk and protective factors might be identified. One hundred and eighty-five cases filed as police reports were collected over a span of ten years. Additional focus was on to those factors that had been consistently seen in national and international literature on child homicides, which included child factors (e.g., age of child), parental factors (age of mother), and crime factors (e.g., location of death; cause of death). The results of the data showed that certain trends regarding risk factors were present, specifically regarding age of child, race; age of mother, cause of death, and geographic location (zip code). An additional finding was that many of the protocols were had large amounts of information missing or left blank (not marked no). This information would have provided useful information on many risk factors, but officers in charge had not documented information on the protocol. The lack of consistency and completeness in documentation led the researcher to make recommendations about training first responders. Based on the data, other cost-effective, early interventions were suggested, based on a child's low birth weight and mother's age. |
