Citation

Yampolskaya S, Greenbaum PE, Berson IR. J. Fam. Violence 2009; 24(5): 337-348.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10896-009-9233-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined characteristics and profiles of 196 child maltreatment perpetrators in Florida, including 126 who committed fatal assaults during 1999–2002. Results of logistic regression suggest that being a biologically unrelated caregiver is the strongest predictor of fatal child maltreatment. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to classify perpetrators, and three classes were identified: Biological Mothers with Health Problems, Male Perpetrators with Domestic Violence History, and Multiple-Problem Perpetrators. Results of LCA showed that compared to Biological Mothers with Health Problems, Multiple-Problem Perpetrators were seven times more likely and Male Perpetrators with Domestic Violence History were 12 times more likely to commit a fatal assault. Implications of the findings are discussed.