Researchers have found what they call a "danger zone" in which kids are more likely to die from abuse and neglect.

The study, which reviewed 300 child deaths dating back to 2000, found abuse-related child death cases are disproportionately clustered in neighborhoods that stretch from South Tacoma to the military bases along the Interstate 5 corridor.

"The one factor that is interesting is it's around the military bases, even though in our research we found that these cases are not related to the military," said lead researcher Tom Stokes.

Researchers aren't sure why child abuse and deaths are more prevalent near bases, but believe risk factors might be at play.

"It's based on low income, high density -- all those things that might be around an old established military base," Stokes said.

The study stated, "It seems most likely that when a poor, lower educated, young, transient population is located around a military base, the likelihood of abuse related to child fatalities increases."

The murder of Michael "Kekoa" Ravenell was a part of trend of deadly abuse that touched off the scientific study. Prosecutors said Noah Thomas, the boyfriend of the boy's mother, threw the 3 year old against a bed frame last May, then choked him to death.

"It really seemed to us it was time to broaden the conversation," said Nancy Sutton, regional administrator for the Department of Social and Health Services.

Pierce County ordered the study after it saw four abuse-related child deaths in the first five months of 2008. It had only seen one such case in the prior year.

"And the commonality we saw was a clustering of those deaths," said Cindan Gizzi of the Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department.

Child welfare groups are now using the the study's findings to draw up strategies to protect kids in the risk zones.

On Friday, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital held a workshop, hoping to reach out to at-risk families. The hospital is trying to identify people like Domenique Conway who, fueled by stress and frustration, killed her 5-month-old baby, according to prosecutors.

Conway, 25, said the boy was crying loudly and squirming while she was trying to change his diaper. She said her two other children - 2 and 6 years old - were fighting in an adjacent room and, out of frustration, she struck the infant with her closed fist twice on the left side of his head. The boy eventually died from internal bleeding.

Mary Bridge want to intervene and prevent such tragedies before they strike.

"It's normal to become frustrated when care-giving a child, but we all need to have a plan about how to deal with that frustration," said Mary Quinlan of Mary Bridge Children's Hospital.