Child Fatality Review Quick Reference

Randell Alexander is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida and the Morehouse School of Medicine. He currently serves as chief of the Division of Child Protection and Forensic Pediatrics and interim chief of the Division of Developmental Pediatrics at the University of Florida-Jacksonville. In addition, he is the statewide medical director of child protections teams for the Department of Health's Children's Medical Services and is part of the International Advisory Board for the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome. He has also served as vice chair of the US Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the boards of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) and Prevent Child Abuse America. Dr. Alexander has served on state child death review committees in Iowa, Georgia, and Florida, as well as on two regional child death review committees. He is an active researcher who lectures widely and testifies frequently in major child abuse cases throughout the country.

Mary Case is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia and the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. She completed her residency training in pathology at the Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center and is board certified in anatomical pathology, neuropathology, and forensic pathology. In addition to being a professor of pathology and codirector of the Division of Forensic Pathology at St. Louis University Health Sciences Center, Dr. Case serves as chief medical examiner for the cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and Jefferson and Franklin Counties. Her primary practice is forensic pathology, and her areas of special interest are childrens' injuries and head trauma.

Doody's Review: 4 Stars
The first half of this book is a good how-to guide to setting up an interdisciplinary child death review panel, outlining the responsibilities of each member with helpful suggestions regarding the administrative aspects of running a panel of this type. The second half outlines the most common types of child death and how the panel should document and respond to each.

It is intended to assist in creating interdisciplinary child death review teams so that there is an improvement in child death investigation, with the ultimate goal of preventing such deaths. The book will be a great guide for those who need to set up this type of review team in their jurisdiction and it has good suggestions for improving the efficacy of teams already in existence.

The book has a large target audience, as the members of a child death review team come from many different disciplines. It would be appropriate for law enforcement officials, social service providers, and city/county administrators, as well as physicians who participate in child death reviews. The authors are leading experts in this field.

This is an excellent manual for jurisdictions that need to create a review process or are new to the review process. The information in the book would make an excellent presentation to any city/county administration about the value of child death review panels. It is uniquely designed in a checklist format that is easy to use and it presents facts without unnecessary editorializing.

This is a great primer for anyone involved in the process of creating or contributing to the child death review process. I don't believe any other book has covered the subject so thoroughly and succinctly.

Jennifer Forsyth, MD
University of Kansas Medical Center

This guide is not meant to provide you with answers to the broader questions related to the risky behaviors, inadequate social systems, or dangerous environments that harm children. It is only by understanding the complex and often hidden causes of child deaths that we can work to prevent other deaths. The child fatality review process is one way to do this. It is a process that helps professionals from many disciplines, including forensics, criminal justice, social services, public health, education, and child advocacy share case information on the complex array of circumstances in individual deaths in order to improve their investigations, services, and systems; and to identify strategies to prevent other deaths. The Child Fatality Review Quick Reference will provide you with information on conducting an effective review.

Theresa Covington, MPH
Executive Director
National Center for Child Death Review
Washington, DC
Senior Program Director
Michigan Public Health Institute
Okemos, Michigan

This book includes technical information that reflects a change in attitude towards child death investigation. Cases that might have gone unexamined in previous years have been pursued with additional investigation by individuals questioning what others accepted. You will face similar choices where the cause, manner, and circumstances of death are not clear. You will probably find cases where the material in this book has not been applied, where the investigation at least appears inaccurate or incomplete.

Michael Durfee, MD
Chief Consultant
Los Angeles County, Interagency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect (ICAN)
National Center for Child Fatality Review
Los Angeles, California