An overview of the state of knowledge on child sexual abuse prevention and future needed research identifies three levels of prevention: primary prevention which prevents the abuse before it occurs; secondary prevention which minimizes the harmful effects of abuse that has occurred; and tertiary prevention which involves intervention to prevent a cycle of abuse. Subsequent papers examine the nature and effectiveness of prevention strategies in these three broad areas. A critique of the literature on the evaluation of child-sexual-abuse prevention programs in Canada is followed by an agenda for future research related to the evaluation of such programs. Another literature review describes the characteristics of Canada's child-sexual-abuse prevention programs and evaluations of them, followed by recommendations for improving such programs and their evaluations. After discussing the need for a child abuse risk index, a paper presents an annotated bibliography pertinent to the establishment of such an interdisciplinary risk index. A stress model with a developmental perspective is proposed in a paper to explain the various initial and long-term effects of the sexual abuse of children. A review of the published material on guidelines for the interview and assessment of sexually abused children determines the type of training required to produce adequate interviews and valid assessments of children who disclose sexual abuse. Other papers address prevalence rates of child sexual abuse within populations that require health system intervention; the medical assessment, treatment, and followup of sexually abused children; treatment outcome research; the sexual abuse of disabled persons; and the treatment of adult male child molesters. Chapter references, tables, and name and subject indexes