A selective study of child mortality

Identification of children's deaths from abuse and neglect is a complex process, thus no one individual should have the sole responsibility for this identification. A team could best carry out the comprehensive, interdisciplinary investigation and evaluation that the process requires.While at the present time, prevention of child abuse is a high priority item; before we invest large sums of public and private money and manpower in a variety of supportive services, some fundamental issues need to be addressed. We ought to do a more thorough job of trying to find out how many infants and children are dying of abuse. Second, we ought to open our minds to the fact that even more children are dying of neglect. When we do a better job of identifying these tragic phenomena, we will also be arriving at better preventive methods.We cannot prevent what we know so little about.