Muertes por agresión infantil en costa rica entre los a？os 2003 y 2011

we reviewed 26551 autopsies carried out in the department of legal medicine, costa rica, from january 01 2003 and 31 december 2011 selecting from this group the killings of patients with an age of 13 years or less which were committed by their own relatives, in a context of child aggression.there were 56 cases, they represent a small percentage of violent deaths for the period (0.35 % ), but that aberrant of this type of behavior and the fact that they are entirely preventable deaths, should call the attention of the society, because they represent the end of the spectrum more violent aggression of the child, whose most cases remains unknown.the profile of the victims was: predominance of infants and children under the age of four who die in the house, with a predominance in the months of february and august, with greater frequency on monday.within the most affected provinces in proportion to their population include san jose, puntarenas and limon. the lethal trauma were mostly contusions in the head and neck of the child. the responsible for the death was, in a significant proportion,the biological father. the mortality rate from this cause between has quadrupled between 2009 and 2011