Citing an estimated three million reports of suspected maltreatment, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect declared a national emergency in the field of child protection in 1990.

The Board's efforts culminated in the landmark 1993 report - Neighbors Helping Neighbors - a proposal for a new comprehensive, neighborhood-based, child-centered, family-focused child protection system, which represents a significant shift in focus from "When is it justifiable to intervene coercively?" to "What can be done to prevent harm to children?".

The editors of this comprehensive volume are the principal architects of the proposed prevention strategy. They have brought together leading experts on child maltreatment to address its social, cultural, and economic precursors, as well as effective prevention and treatment.

Focusing on ways to strengthen neighborhoods, build connections among and within families, and bolster economic and social supports, contributors offer practical advice for the development and implementation of programs and policies to prevent harm to children. To create a society-wide safety net in which child protection becomes a part of everyday life, their work proposes an agenda for critical research and identifies concrete strategies for all those who come in contact with children. Such work served as the empirical foundation for the U.S.

Advisory Board's new national strategy. Offering a picture of child abuse and neglect unmatched in its authority and breadth, this book is ideal for social workers, all mental health professionals working with children, child rights advocates, child welfare administrators, and policy makers. It is also valuable as a primary text or secondary reading for courses dealing with strategies for preventing child abuse and neglect.