Report: Child Homicides in the Military Decrease

A concerted effort by the military is reducing the number of homicides of young children by parents or caregivers. That's the finding of a report from Action for Children North Carolina. Tom Vitaglione is a senior fellow with the organization. He says the families considered at greatest risk for child maltreatment are younger, under economic or mental stress, with a lower level of education, and isolated from extended family.

Tom Vitaglione: In looking at military families as a whole, quite a large percentage of them have multiple of those indicators, and so that puts them at higher risk. And that's really the good news and the surprising news that the rates have dropped is that even during a period of deployment, the rates have dropped.

Vitaglione says killings of children 10 or younger by parents or caregivers are still twice as common on and around the state's largest military installations. But the rate has fallen in both the military and civilian populations in the last decade, 13 percent statewide.