Child murder

Child murder or child homicide is the homicide of an individual under the age of 18. In 2008, there were 1,494 child homicides in the United States. Of those killed, 1,035 were male and 453 were female. Child manslaughter can result in an aggravated charge in some jurisdictions such as the State of Florida.

Several U.S. states have included child murder to their list of aggravating factors making a murder punishable by the death penalty, but the victim’s age under which the crime is a capital crime varies between them. In 2011, Texas raised this age from six to 10.

In most countries, there are very few cases where children are killed by other young children. According to the U.S. Department of Justice statistics for 1996, one in five murders of children are committed by other children. Several murders by children have gained prominent media exposure. One was the killing on 12 February 1993 of the almost three-year-old boy James Bulger by two ten-year-old boys in Bootle, England, UK. He was beaten and stoned before his unconscious body was left on train tracks to give the impression that a train had hit him. Also, in 1968 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England there was the trial of 10-year-old Mary Bell. She was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility in the deaths of toddlers Martin Brown and Brian Howe. She was released in 1980 at the age of 23. In 1998, 8 -year-old Madelyn Clifton was killed by 14-year-old Josh Phillips.

In 1992, after the fatal shooting of 7-year-old Dantrell Davis as he left the Cabrini–Green public housing project for school, the Chicago Tribune put every child murder on the front page (generally no murders were front page news). 62 child murders were reported that year.

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