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New at Reason: Radley Balko on Shaken Baby Syndrome
Beginning in
the late 1980s, the U.S. saw a surge in the number of people
prosecuted for shaking infants to death. Research at the time
suggested that the presence of three particular symptoms could only
mean a child had been vigorously shaken to death, and the that the
assault took place just before the infant lost consciousness.
But as Senior Editor Radley Balko explains, in the early 2000s, the medical consensus on shaken baby syndrome began to shift. In the meantime, thousands of people have been convicted based on science that most researchers now believe was misleading or incorrect. Balko argues that the shaken baby cases show how a criminal justice system that puts a high value on finality is slow to recognize advances in science and medical research.
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