Published today, is associate professor Brittany Coats podcast interview by Just Science, Forensic Technology Center of Excellence, regarding her and assistant professor Ashley Spear’s research to develop and validate a computational toolset for predicting skull fracture patterns in infants. This research is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that approximately 686,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect during 2012. The highest percentage of these children are between birth and 3 years of age, and are more likely to experience a recurrence of maltreatment if the abuse is not identified. To confound matters, accidental falls are the leading causes of non-fatal injury in infants less than one year old and also the most common explanation given by caretakers suspected of abuse. Thus, distinguishing a truthful history of a fall from a false one proves to be a difficult but important task for a clinician, and for the legal system.