One friend remembered seeing Keintz around her baby, and recalled a gentle man who took to children easily. I saw him hold my child before he adopted his first baby, and he seemed to have the magic touch. Keintz's attorney said last week his client will plead not guilty to first-degree murder. Local child abuse experts said they believe the public's understanding of shaken-baby syndrome has improved since the 1970s and 1980s, when many physicians missed the symptoms of such abuse. Dr. Demetra Soter, coordinator of the pediatric trauma center at Cook County Children's Hospital, said most of the perpetrators of shaken-baby syndrome are male, and most blame their violent reaction on frustration over the inability to keep a child from crying.
Perpetrators know they have gone beyond what is acceptable.
It's the crying that seems to push people over the edge. Kim Dell'Angela, a child psychologist at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, said no amount of shaking is safe or acceptable, but when a child is severely injured or killed, it is a prolonged and violent act. There is a great amount of force that is exerted, and you have to watch a child suffer while you're doing it. This happens right in your face. What separates other parents is that they can control themselves when no one is watching.