This best-selling text offers a comprehensive look at child maltreatment, incorporating history, case vignettes, and the author's own experience as a child protection worker.

The author covers the history of child welfare, an overview of families that are both functional and dysfunctional, and contrasts healthy child development with development hampered by abuse and neglect. Every type of maltreatment is discussed, from neglect and physical abuse to sexual abuse, domestic violence, and emotional abuse.

The text explains case management procedures and focuses on how various professionals become involved in the child protection process and how treatment is undertaken. The text concludes with a discussion of prevention and a consideration of the future.