Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2, April 2002 ( 2002) Ecological Correlates of Child Maltreatment: Similarities and Differences Between Child Fatality and Nonfatality Cases Toni Chance, M.S.W., and Maria Scannapieco, Ph.D. ABSTRACT: The rate of fatal child maltreatment is increasing, and differ- entiating between risk factors for fatal as opposed to nonfatal maltreatment is essential to developing prevention programs. This exploratory retrospective study utilizes case record analysis to examine four categories of correlates for child maltreatment: 1) parent/caregiver factors, 2) child factors, 3) environ- mental/situational factors, and 4) maltreatment incident factors. Thirty-eight fatality cases are compared to a matched group of nonfatality cases to deter- mine which factors are related to fatality in a large Southwestern metropoli- tan area. The results provide a profile of characteristics that may place a child at higher risk of fatal maltreatment. KEY WORDS: Child Maltreatment; Child Fatality; Child Abuse; Child Neglect. Introduction Child death due to maltreatment is a significant problem facing Amer- ican society, as evidenced by the number of fatalities increasing stead- ily over the past decade (Herman-Giddens et al., 1999; NCCAN, 1999; Toni Chance, M.S.W., is a doctoral student at George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis. Maria Scannapieco, Ph.D., is an associate professor and director of the Center for Child Welfare at University of Texas at Ar- lington. Address correspondence to Toni Chance, M.S.W., George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1196, St. Louis, MO 63130; e-mail: trc2@gwbmail.wustl.edu. This article is an expansion of Ms. Chance’s master’s thesis entitled A Comparative Study of Fatal and Nonfatal Child Maltreatment Cases. 139  2002 Human Sciences Press, Inc.