Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Nearly 40 percent of all children in the U.S. experience an investigation by child protective services during their childhood (Kim et al., 2017). Relative to other developed countries, the rate of child fatalities due to abuse or neglect in the U.S. is much higher. Safe haven laws allow the anonymous surrender of infants at designated locations such as police stations, fire departments, and hospitals. All 50 states in the U.S. have one of these laws, and many European countries have similar “baby boxes” for the relinquishment of a newborn. There is no evidence on the effectiveness of these laws, however. In this first empirical study of the effect of safe haven laws in the U.S. I use restricted access infant death certificates to compare infant deaths at various ages (in days) due to neglect, maltreatment, assault, or homicide before and after each state’s safe haven legislation was enacted. I find safe haven laws reduce infant deaths due to neglect, maltreatment, assault, or homicide by about 40 percent in the year following safe haven legislation enactment, with the potential to have saved the lives of nearly 800 infants. The effects are immediate but subside over time. Robustness checks and falsification tests confirm the results. A conservative back of the envelope estimate of the direct cost per life saved is $712,400, indicating these laws are a cost-effective way to reduce the rate of child maltreatment fatalities.