Currently, there is no generally accepted index that measures the risk of child abuse. A child abuse risk index could be used among the many disciplines that care for children. Greater understanding and uniformity of response to the predictors of child abuse will improve practitioners' ability to minimize it and prevent its reoccurrence. Interest in a risk index stems from the trend toward reliance on multidisciplinary consultation in child protection work. Consultation among disciplines can be counterproductive if the participants do not agree on the definition of high risk. An index should be based on the collective knowledge and experience available in the literature; it should include the key concepts in the dynamics of child abuse; and it should be of manageable size and have predictive value, so the user has a clear indication of whether the situation poses high, middle, or low risk. The annotated bibliography presented is divided into the following subject areas: bibliographies, literature reviews, family psycho-social situation, parent's profile, perinatal risk factors, risk factors for children one and over, and risk indices. An appended diagnostic tool organizes selected risk variables around one conceptual framework. 57 references