Page 105 - CFDI Guide

CHILD DEATHS AND INJURIES / NEGLECT AND ABUSE

In criminal defense, the CFDI may find more child related deaths and abuse than expected. These can be

emotional due to the age of the child, most often in death and abuse under the age of ten resulting in
criminal charges. A child is any person 17 years of age or younger. From about age 15, a child is a young

adult and these cases are best for the CFDI to undertake the same as an adult incident. Similarly, a person
from about age 15 to 17 may also be charged and tried as an adult (statutes vary). For simplicity, the age

brackets we most often see are:
• 0-4 infant and toddler, and requiring constant adult care and supervision.

• 5-9 young child, and still requiring adult care and supervision; however, not as required in younger

years.
• 10-14 pre-teen and teen child requiring less adult care and supervision with some autonomy.
• 15 and up are young adult and more autonomy.

These are not specific to any medical status by age, only a simple categorization. There will be significant
medical considerations in these deaths – with increase age comes different bone density and physical

strengths, different activities and movements, different health issues and immunities, different exposures,
different psychology, different life events, etc. Any child or adult can be neglected and abused – physically,

sexually, and emotionally in any combination. As children age, their physical activity and personal
interactions grow and change. They are more capable of physical activity, including defending themselves

and being aggressors.

Child deaths and injury may be caused by neglect. This neglect may be direct – such as denying food or

shelter, indirect – such as an unsafe environment resulting in injury or death, and unintentional – such as
alternative medicine.

The investigation of child deaths and abuse, whether as a defendant or a victim, is difficult for these and

other reasons – many specific to the child, like all cases. It is therefore difficult to adequately publish
investigative techniques for this category – and is too important not to. Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a
specific subtopic of infant death or abuse investigation, and is covered separately – all manners of

investigation are otherwise the same, and more comprehensive.

One additional category is Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Syndrome – SUIDS (formerly SIDS – Sudden

Infant Death Syndrome). This is a very specific age group and circumstances, and medicolegal findings –
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