AppId is over the quota
By Genevra Pittman
NEW YORK | Mon Oct 3, 2011 4:21pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People suspected of child abuse homicide are just as likely to get convicted, and have similar sentences, as those who are arrested for killing an adult, according to a new study from Utah.
There have been questions about how courts rule on cases involving violence against children compared to violence against adults, with some studies suggesting that suspects of child abuse aren't as likely to be found guilty or aren't penalized as severely. But that was not the case here, say the authors.
"The most important thing we can do is prevent child abuse... and in the end prevent this from ever happening," said Dr. Hilary Hewes from the University of Utah, who worked on the study.
Still, "I thought it was very reassuring that we value children's lives and we take it seriously when they're lost," she told Reuters Health.
Child abuse homicide is defined as a guardian acting or failing to act in a way that results in a child's death, but doesn't count as aggravated murder. In this study, the definition included abusive head and stomach trauma, as well as asphyxiation and burning.
Using a statewide database of violent crimes, Hewes and her colleagues found 334 cases of adult and child non-justifiable homicide between 2002 and 2007.
That included a total of 66 child homicides, 34 of which were categorized as child abuse homicide, were under Utah's jurisdiction and had suspects that were alive to be prosecuted. Out of all adult crimes, 135 suspects were identified.
Both adult and child offenders were convicted at a similar rate -- 83 percent and 88 percent, respectively. In addition, both groups of suspects were just as likely to receive the highest types of conviction, a capital crime or felony 1, or to get a sentence that included the possibility of life in prison.
The researchers wrote in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine that the results may not apply to other states, especially places where more youth deaths happen as a result of gang violence, or where medical examiners aren't as thorough about determining cause of death in childhood victims.
But for child abuse crimes in particular, the similar rates of conviction and severity of sentencing show that courts were not being easier on suspects in child cases, despite some beliefs that those crimes "lack intentionality" compared to people who kill adults.
"I think there is a different perception between crimes against children versus crimes against adults because of the huge age difference between the victims," said Wendy Walsh, from the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, who wasn't involved in the new study.
Walsh was part of a study that found that in the 1980s and 1990s, child abuse cases were less likely to lead to charges being filed once they went to the prosecutor.
But in this case, she told Reuters Health, "I'm not surprised they did find these similar results, given the extremely aggressive, violent nature of these crimes."
SOURCE: bit.ly/oPnFuO Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, online October 3, 2011.
