Shop

Against considerable resistance from police, prosecutors and the medical establishment, The Medill Justice Project, through the hard-hitting reporting of undergraduate student journalists, in 2012 took on a largely overlooked and misunderstood area of the criminal-justice system: shaken-baby syndrome. Scores of mothers, fathers, day care workers and other caregivers throughout the United States are being accused of violently shaking children, inflicting fatal head injuries. Our relentless examination of this issue—through our published investigative articles, breaking stories, fight for public records, FOIA requests and appeals and motions in federal court—has provided a deeper, nuanced understanding of this complex, controversial subject. Shaken-baby syndrome has received scant in-depth examination in the media even as emerging science divides many in the medical community.