Interagency child death review teams have emerged in response to the i
ncreasing awareness of severe violence perpetrated against children in
the United States. Child death review involves a systematic, multidis
ciplinary, and multiagency process to coordinate data and resources fr
om the coroner, law enforcement, the courts, child protective services
, and health care providers. The Orange County, CA team reviews all co
roner's cases (unattended death or questionable cause of death) for ch
ildren 12 years old and younger. This paper describes the interagency
review in Orange County and provides data on the demographics of cases
reviewed by the team (N = 637) compared to unreviewed deaths (N = 1,4
63) for the period 1989 to 1991. Trends were analyzed to assess differ
ences in: (1) age distribution; (2) gender; (3) ethnicity; (4) cause o
f death (non-SIDS natural; non-natural including traffic deaths, SIDS,
other injuries; homicide; and undetermined); and (5) cause of death b
y age, gender, and ethnicity. Implications of the data for other juris
dictions with child death review teams are discussed.