This article examines three pertinent facets of the child-maltreatment knowledge base: national child abuse and neglect reporting, empirical investigations of the psychological effects of maltreatment, and a small number of treatment outcome studies. On the basis of this review, guidelines are proposed to promote the development of practical, scientifically validated treatment strategies that adequately reflect existing data about child victims and their life circumstances and that are responsive to their specific needs and available resources. The guidelines propose: treatment outcome investigations should identify the type of maltreatment that child victims experience and provide precise descriptions of salient maltreatment characteristics; treatment outcome investigations should attend carefully to developmental considerations and give higher priority to the study of effective treatment strategies for younger victims; and treatment outcome investigations should recognize the multiple problems and minimal resources of families of child victims and consider the need for practical and acceptable service delivery systems. 1 note and 61 references (Author abstract modified)