Assault and Accidents Still Leading Causes of Death in Young Children

Unfortunately, this didn't ring true for young children. According to the preliminary data released Jan. 11, assault is the 3rd leading cause of death for children 1 to 4 years old in 2010. That means that nearly 370 of the approximately 4,300 children that died in this country that year did so at the hands of another.

Jacquelyn McCroskey, a child welfare professor at the University of Southern California and a former First 5 LA commissioner, said it is important to note that children this age are not usually victims of the types of homicides or assaults we usually think about.

"It's not burglars coming down the street after a 4-year-old," McCroskey said. "For very young children, it's just a combination of different things."

Most homicides involving children don't involve intent - they usually are the result of a parent or caregiver inflicting physical discipline or neglect by placing them in dangerous situations, McCroskey said.

And, because it is often difficult to prove and prosecute assaults on children, there is a large gray area where deaths occurring in unknown circumstances are deemed "accidents," McCroskey added.

Accidents remained the number one cause of death for children in that age range, according to the data. Of the 1,367 accidental deaths for children 1-4, 444 were automobile related and the rest were other categories, like drowning or poison ingestion.

McCroskey said she is personally pleased that the CDC recognizes child maltreatment prevention as an area that needs attention.

"Child abuse deaths are not huge numbers in the sense of the number of people who die from cancer, but it is a pretty consistent number. It happens every year and they're all heartbreaking," McCroskey said. "And so that the CDC recognizes something that might be thought of as more of a social services issue and puts it in the domain of public health means we can prevent it."

The CDC has a web page dedicated to child maltreatment prevention and risk and protective factors that cites supportive family, community and social networks as factors that reduce the risk of child abuse. First 5 LA's family strengthening initiatives, like Welcome Baby and Partnerships for Families, are designed on the same protective factors to meet the agency's goal that all children are safe from abuse and neglect.

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