The scope and referents of the definitions are contingent upon the differential goals of their users -academic researchers, reporting agencies, and social and medical practitioners. Conceptual ambiguity and differential usage have hampered accurate and consistent reporting and research. This situation is exacerbated by practitioners' focus on injuries to the child victim and researchers' concentration on the empirical assessment of the offender's violent action. These incongruencies inhibit the development of a more complete understanding of child maltreatment as a social problem. A conceptual model is proposed to reduce these incongruencies. The model is composed of the general theoretical concept of child abuse, which is divided into theoretically and operationally defined subtypes. The subtypes are bidimensionally differentiated, i.e., the behavior of the offender and the consequences to the victim. The behavioral subtypes are scaled degrees of violent physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical and emotional neglect. Victim consequences are scaled degrees of physical and emotional injury. 31 references. (Author abstract modified)