nam 22 uu 4500 dbt_mods_00057112 10.1007/s00414-020-02435-5 doi dbt_mods_00057112 ger DE-601 rda eng 610 sdnb Feld, Katharina Author aut Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany Abusive head trauma in court: a multi-center study on criminal proceedings in Germany Feld, Katharina;Feld, Dustin;Karger, Bernd;Helmus, Janine;Schwimmer-Okike, Nneka;Pfeiffer, Heidi;Banaschak, Sibylle;Wittschieber, Daniel 2021-01 10 Seiten text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier Zweitveröffentlichung Abstract The shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a common variant of abusive head trauma (AHT) in infants and toddlers. Data on the legal outcome of such cases are still sparse. By means of a retrospective multi-center analysis, 72 cases of living children diagnosed with SBS/AHT from three German university institutes of legal medicine were identified. Forty-six of these cases with 68 accused individuals were available and could be evaluated with regard to basic data on the course of the criminal proceedings as well as the profile of the defendants (sub-divided into suspects, convicts, and confessed perpetrators). Criminal proceedings predominantly commenced with a complaint by the treating hospital (62%) and were found to be closed (without judgment) in 50% of the cases, mostly due to a “lack of sufficient suspicion.” Of the 23 cases with judgment, the court decided on acquittal in 4 cases (17%). Imprisonment was the most frequent sentence (16 out of 19 cases with conviction, 84%), whereby the sentence has been suspended on probation in 63% of the cases. Suspects and perpetrators were mostly male and derived from the close family environment of the injured children. All confessed perpetrators stated an “excessive demand” as the reason for the violent shaking of the child. The results of the present study are in line with data from other studies with other legal systems. As many criminal proceedings were closed and the 4 acquittals occurred because the perpetration could not be ascribed to a specific perpetrator, improving the forensic methods for such an unequivocal assignment would be desirable. Child abuse Clinical forensic medicine Perpetrator’s confessions Perpetrator’s profile Legal assessment article Feld, Dustin Author aut adiutaByte GmbH, Business Campus, Sankt Augustin, Germany Karger, Bernd Author aut Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany Helmus, Janine Author aut Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany Schwimmer-Okike, Nneka Author aut Institute of Legal Medicine, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany (DE-588)1321252072 Pfeiffer, Heidi Author aut Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany Banaschak, Sibylle Author aut Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany Wittschieber, Daniel Author aut Institute of Legal Medicine, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany (DE-588)1022638718 Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena Medizinische Fakultät host institution his 135:1<235 International Journal of Legal Medicine 0937-9827 1437-1596 dbt_mods_00056203 https://www.db-thueringen.de/receive/dbt_mods_00057112 object in context https://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/dbt_derivate_00060053/s00414-020-02435-5.pdf raw object https://www.db-thueringen.de/rsc/thumbnail/dbt_mods_00057112.png preview https://www.db-thueringen.de/receive/dbt_mods_00057112 uri