In Fayetteville, Tyrone Dewin Patten pled guilty to felony child abuse and involuntary manslaughter for the death of his infant son. Aviajon Tyrone McCoy-Patten was only 12 weeks old when he died from Shaken Baby Syndrome. Mr. Patten received a prison sentence for approximately 8 – 10 years duration. He will receive credit for the time he has already spent in jail since December 2005. Mr. Patten was arrested shortly after Aviajon was diagnosed with Shaken Baby Syndrome and fractured ribs at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. Sadly, Aviajon passed away on January 3, 2006.
Abusive parents have risk factors such as substance abuse, low self-esteem, mental or physical disability, depression, history of abuse as a child, poor coping skills, poor impulse control, history of violent behavior or history of being raised in a group setting with no positive parental role. All children are potential victims of child abuse, but the presence of these factors increase the risk for children to be abused.
According to the CDC, 1,490 children died from abuse and neglect in the Unites States for the year 2004. This number decreased in 2005 to 1,460 deaths. Greater than 75% of these deaths occurred in children under four years of age. A total of 872,000 children were reportedly abused in that same time frame. In 2005, child protective services investigated 3.6 million cases of reported child abuse complaints, which resulted in discovery of 899,000 cases of child abuse. Higher rates of abuse occur in the African-American population at 1,950 per 100,000 children. Girls are at a higher risk to be victims of maltreatment than boys. Mothers have demonstrated a more frequent tendency to abuse and are generally younger in age than male adult abusers. However male adult abusers inflict more severe abuse outcomes.
