Demographics

The charts below provide demographic information for child fatalities that were reported to the Los Angeles County Child Protection Hotline*, from January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2024, that met WIC §10850.4 (a) and (b) criteria, meaning they were determined to be the result of parental/caregiver abuse and/or neglect**, and had DCFS history***.

*The data does not include the fatalities reported to the CPH when the deceased child had an open case or referral in another County at the time of death.

**A fatality is confirmed to be the result of abuse and or neglect when any one of three agencies (DCFS, Law Enforcement, or Coroner) makes that determination. All fatalities that are confirmed to be the result of abuse and or neglect also meet the criteria for reasonable suspicion.

***A child is defined as having DCFS history if they or their siblings or half siblings, were previously referred to DCFS as a potential victim of abuse or neglect, even if that referral was closed prior to their death and even if the facts of the previous referral are completely unrelated to the circumstances that led to their death. In addition, if the family only had a referral that was evaluated out, that is still considered history.

Ethnicity

You may hover over any color section of the horizontal bar graph to view the number of fatalities that pertain to a specific year.

The following table presents child fatalities as a disaggregated incident rate per 100,000 children among children of that same race/ethnicity in Los Angeles County’s total population. These rates are computed by dividing counts of children with child fatalities (2015 – 2023) by the average number of children of that race/ethnicity in the population (0-17 years) and then multiplying by 100,000. The data source for children’s ethnicity in Los Angeles County is the California Child Welfare Indicators Project website.

*The numbers for year 2024 is not included in the rate calculation.

Age

You may hover over any color section of the horizontal bar graph to view the number of fatalities that pertain to a specific year.

Gender

You may hover over any color section of the horizontal bar graph to view the number of fatalities that pertain to a specific year.