Exploring the controversy in child abuse pediatrics and false accusations of abuse

Legal Medicine
Steven C Gabaeff

Abstract

There is a controversy in child abuse pediatrics between an established corps of child abuse pediatricians aligned with hospital colleagues and law enforcement, and a multi-specialty challenger group of doctors and other medical professionals working with public interest lawyers. The latter group questions the scientific validity of the core beliefs of child abuse pediatricians and believes that there are a substantial number of false accusations of abuse occurring. An unproven primary hypothesis, crafted around 1975 by a small group of pediatricians with an interest in child abuse, lies at the foundation of child abuse pediatrics. With no scientific study, it was hypothesized that subdural hemorrhage (SDH) and retinal hemorrhage (RH) were diagnostic of shaking abuse. That hypothesis became the so-called "shaken baby syndrome." Through the period 1975-1985, in a coordinated manner, these child abuse specialists coalesced under the American Academy of Pediatrics and began working with district attorneys and social workers, informing them of the ways in which their hypothesis could be applied to prosecutions of child abuse and life-altering social service interventions. In a legal context, using then-prevailing evidentiary rules ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 29, 2017·Acta Paediatrica·Niels LynøeAnders Eriksson
Apr 29, 2020·Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine·Domyung Paek, Dae-Ik Kwon
Sep 25, 2021·Child Maltreatment·Katie L JohnsonUNKNOWN ExSTRA Investigators

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