This volume highlights recent advances in the recognition, investigation, and prevention of child abuse deaths, integrating perspectives from forensic medicine, public health, social work, and law. Drawing on the latest research and multidisciplinary case analyses, it examines how improved data collection and interagency collaboration have deepened understanding of fatal maltreatment patterns, mechanisms of death, and systemic failures that contribute to missed opportunities for prevention. The chapters provide comprehensive coverage of evolving methodologies in fatality review, diagnostic innovations in medical and forensic investigation, and evidence-based prevention strategies implemented across jurisdictions. By emphasizing cross-system communication and accountability, it guides professionals in developing more cohesive responses to child fatalities. Intended for clinicians, researchers, legal professionals, child death review members and policymakers, this volume serves as both a scholarly resource and a practical guide to reducing child deaths through improved recognition, coordinated action, and policy reform. Ultimately, it challenges all disciplines to move beyond identification toward prevention, ensuring that lessons learned from each child’s death drive systemic change and protect future generations.

Scott Krugman, MD, MS, FAAP is Senior Associate Dean for the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Regional Medical Campus (RMC) at LifeBridge Health’s Sinai Hospital. From 2018-2024 Dr. Krugman served as Vice Chair of Pediatrics at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. Currently he remains the Clinical Operations Director for the Department of Pediatrics at the Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai overseeing ambulatory pediatrics for the department. A board-certified Child Abuse Pediatrician, Dr. Krugman chairs the Baltimore County Child Fatality Review Team and is a member of the Baltimore County Child Protection Review Panel. He has served on numerous statewide child abuse committees and is a faculty member of the Maryland Child Abuse Medical Professionals (CHAMP). Dr. Krugman is a Past-President of the Maryland Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and served on the national American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Community Pediatrics from 2014-2019. He served as Journal Associate Editor for Hospital Pediatrics from 2011 – 2017 and the Journal Editorial Board for Pediatrics from 2018-2024. 

Wendy Lane, MD, MPH, FAAP, FACPM is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Medical Director at Lifebridge Health Center for Hope.  A board-certified Child Abuse Pediatrician, Dr. Lane directs the Maryland CHild Abuse Medical Professionals (CHAMP) program, which provides training, peer review and support to Maryland physicians and nurses who evaluate children with suspected maltreatment. She has served in multiple state and national leadership positions and on state and local child fatality review teams. As Chair of the Maryland State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect (SCCAN), she helped pass Maryland legislation to create a Medical Director for Child Welfare and to reduce sexual abuse and misconduct in schools. Her research and publications have focused on child maltreatment identification and prevention, disparities in maltreatment diagnosis and reporting, improving birth outcomes and preventing infant mortality.  Dr. Lane was the 2022 recipient of the AAP Council on Child Abuse and Neglect Award for Outstanding Service to Maltreated Children.

Vincent J. Palusci, MD, MS, FAAP, FAPSAC is Professor of Pediatrics and Forensic Medicine at New York University School of Medicine in New York City where he is a board certified general and child abuse pediatrician at Bellevue Hospital. He has co-edited nine books and authored more than 250 reports, chapters, scholarly articles, and research abstracts on child abuse and neglect, including abusive head trauma, mandated reporting, child death review, child maltreatment fatalities, prevention, and the effects of maternal drug use on infants. He has lead child protection programs in Grand Rapids and Detroit, Michigan, and New York has provided training nationally and internationally for physicians, social workers, child protection workers, attorneys and other medical and child welfare professionals, and has testified before state, federal and international bodies on the issue of child maltreatment. He has served in leadership roles for the American Academy of Pediatrics, Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children, American Board of Pediatrics Child Abuse Subboard, and Prevent Child Abuse New York and has received awards from the AAP and APSAC for his work in the field.