Shaken: A Forensic Misadventure

Shaken is my blog about shaken baby syndrome, an unsettling topic in more ways than one.

After more than a decade of research, I am now writing a book to explain, with medical and legal documentation, how sincere professionals working with a flawed model of SBS have been overdiagnosing abuse by shaking, and sometimes pointing investigators to the wrong perpetrator. I am not saying that shaking an infant is safe, or that infant abuse is not a problem, only that some innocent caretakers are being convicted based on the testimony of doctors who were trained with a widely accepted but unproven model of SBS.

Now decades of clinical experience, apparently confirmed by courtroom outcomes, have convinced these doctors that the classic model of SBS is accurate, even as new research casts doubt. The victims of this tragedy are legion.

For the story of a family eventually cleared of shaking their infant son to death, please see the prologue to my book.

For an article-length treatment of the case that's the spine of my book, see Stephanie's story.

For the deep history of SBS theory, see Theory and Practice.

For an introduction to the biomechanical debate that's been raging over infant shaking since the 1980s, see Whiplash Injury and Brain Damage.

For the home page of my SBS web site, see http://onsbs.wordpress.com/