Ecological Correlates of Child Maltreatment: Similarities and Differences Between Child Fatality and Nonfatality Cases

The rate of fatal child maltreatment is increasing, and differentiating between risk factors for fatal as opposed to nonfatal maltreatment is essential to developing prevention programs. This exploratory retrospective study utilizes case record analysis to examine four categories of correlates for child maltreatment: 1) parent/caregiver factors, 2) child factors, 3) environmental/situational factors, and 4) maltreatment incident factors. Thirty-eight fatality cases are compared to a matched group of nonfatality cases to determine which factors are related to fatality in a large Southwestern metropolitan area. The results provide a profile of characteristics that may place a child at higher risk of fatal maltreatment.