To Prevent, To Investigate, To Uphold and To Supply Law & Order: Child Homicide

Any act of killing a person under 18 years-old is classified as a child homicide. This is an act of cruelty which has to bring to justice those who did it. The responsibility is immerse. The time has got a meaning and is precious. The numbers of children hurt or murdered every year is far too high. The domestic violence is a silent act of withstanding pain and humiliation. No one tells what happens behind the walls, no one tells [my child is beaten almost every day] – bruises disappear. It has to be spoken out loud and the police does all it can to encourage and make victims conscious how important it is to face with the reality, instead of hiding behind tears and fear. Most murders occur in the first two years of life, the police investigates infancide and filicide, when, the children are killed by parents. The tools are so-called ‘private tools’ hands, fists. The impulse to pacify the child is so strong that it strikes quickly and the deliberate killing happens. The 24 hours from the birth are the one when the child is killed and it is a mother who does it, she delivers the baby and kills it. The explanation is always the same [my baby was stillborn]. Mother panicked and deposed of the body.  To establish whether the child was dead or alive the pathologist checks the stomach content, unfortunately it happens too soon, so the child did not have any milk or any other food. When the pathologist established that the child was alive, the police has to find out how it happened. The means of killing a child vary: the most common is suffocation, less common – strangulation. Suffocation happens when, e.g. the parent stuffs the child’s mouth with toilet paper, drowns the child in the toilet, sometimes the parent throws a child off the building, or causes death by exposure or lack of care. Suffocation of neonate indicates no signs of  physical force.  There are cases, when, a newborn is placed in a warm dry atmosphere  where it undergoes mummification. The murders of young children can be placed in a number of categories:

-          battered child;

-          impulse homicide;

-          angry homicide;

-          gentle homicide.

All of them show an unprecedented cruelty toward children. Children dying of blunt force injuries are exposed to multiple contusions, abrasions of the body. The visible are recent healing – mostly about the head. Lacerations, burns, patterned injuries caused by belts, coat hangers are visible. Battered baby syndrome is characterized by repeated intentional acts of trauma; it might be deprivation of food, water. Parents come to the E.R. with the child, the doctor sees old and recently made bruises, skull fractures, burns. The parents reply [they didn’t know their child was so ill]. The most common explanation of bruising is that the child always falls down, in case of starvation – the child is fussy and doesn’t want to eat, in case of dehydration – the child is described as fussy water, spitting everything up. In case of a diaper rash – the child is too sensitive to have it – the child is allergic to it. The police officer has to listen to the following ‘excuses’ / explanations:

-          the baby fell from the arms;

-          the parent fell down with the baby;

-          the baby’s legs and arms got caught in the crib slabs;

-          the parent was throwing a child in the air;

-          the parent was throwing the baby to its mother’s arms and missed;

… and so on and on … .

Blows to the face are rare but occur and cause dislodge teeth, there may be visible cigarettes burns on the body. Hot fluids may be thrown onto the child. Most battered children die of head trauma. The subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages are visible during the autopsy. Those hemorrhages may occur with or without the skull fracture. There is a skull or brain injury without visible external trauma. The child is exposed to criminal neglect and parental ignorance. The impulse or angry homicide is characterized by sudden, uncontrolled act of violence, it might be a result of slight, insignificant provocation. The perpetrator is a husband, a boyfriend – who hits a child, shakes it, closes its mouth – a bit too long and causes demise. The gentle homicide is characterized by smothering a child or an infant. The reasons why parents kill children is not apparent. The children are stabbed, kidnapped, their death is staged as drowning in a river or in a bath tube. The child’s bones a vulnerable, easily breakable. While abused, spiral fractures occur – caused by extreme twisting, transverse fractures are caused by a direct blow, bending of the bone, as well as, the rib fractures. Shaken baby syndrome causes various dangerous and lethal hemorrhages:

-          retinal;

-          subdural;

-          subarachnoid.

The parent shakes the child’s head (which is relatively heavy in comparison to the weak neck muscles), shaking damages the immature brain. Scarcely hitting causes traumatic intracranial bleeding, in which there is no evidence of impact on the scalp or skull. However, lack of trauma does not preclude impact.

Regardless of circumstances, the motive of a parent is to pacify [calm down] a child – thinking of killing. Denial stops when guilty conscience appears. The child’s death always looks suspicious and should be always treated as such.

Acknowledgements:

The Police Department;

https://www.politie.nl/mijnbuurt/politiebureaus/05/burgwallen.html  and a Chief Inspector – Mr.Erik Akerboom ©

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