ABSTRACT
When someone hears the term child abuse, what most often comes to mind is a picture of a child who has been physically abused. This makes sense because child physical abuse (CPA) was the first type of child maltreatment to be identified by professionals, and it makes the most visible marks on its victims. While growing media attention to other types of maltreatment (like sexual and emotional abuse) may eventually change this, for many people, the image of a bruised and battered child is the one that is most closely tied to the concept of child maltreatment.
