Article Content

Higher U.S. county poverty concentration is associated with higher rates of fatal child abuse. Using mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and population and poverty data from the U.S. Census Bureau, a study in the May issue of Pediatrics found that, among the 11,149 U.S. children ages zero to four years who died of abuse between 1999 and 2014, there were eight deaths per 100,000 black children, compared with 2.7 deaths per 100,000 white children. Counties with the highest concentration of poverty had 4.5 fatalities per 100,000 children (compared with 1.3 deaths for counties with the lowest poverty). Although infants accounted for only 20% of all children, they made up 45% of child abuse deaths.