ABSTRACT

Although it is possible to identify articles relevant to the maltreatment of children in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the recognition of physical abuse of children by parents as a major public health problem dates largely from the influential paper describing the “Battered Child Syndrome” (Kempe, Silverman, Steele, Droegemueller, & Silver, 1962). Within the United States, this influential paper stimulated public and professional awareness, public policy, and legislative initiatives (cf. Nelson, 1984), as well as a dramatic growth in research. Knutson and Schartz (in press) recently reported a consideration of over 1,200 articles pertaining to physical abuse and neglect of children since 1973. Although there has been a burgeoning of research on abuse of children, epidemiological data (e.g., Knutson & Selner, 1994; Office of Human Development Services, 1988; Straus & Gelles, 1986) do not suggest that the research and public policy initiatives have had a significant influence on the prevalence of physical abuse. Moreover, although there are some optimistic reports based on interventions with “at-risk families” (e.g., Hardy & Streett, 1989; Hornick & Clarke, 1986; Wolfe, Edwards, Manion, & Koverola, 1988), the intervention efforts that have been empirically tested with severely maltreating families are not necessarily encouraging (e.g., Cohn & Daro, 1987). Thus, physical abuse of children by parents is not a problem that has been fully understood or resolved.