Physical child abuse is often accompanied by emotional abuse. Statistics indicate that more than 2.5 million children were abused and neglected in 1990, compared to 789,000 in 1980. The significant increase in child abuse reporting over the 10- year period is attributed to drug abuse by parents, the persistence of social problems, and the limited availability of treatment and prevention services for individuals at risk. Factors that lead to physical child abuse include parents who were abused as children, abusive parents who do not ask for help, low self-esteem, and weak adult relationships. Further, potentially abusive parents have unrealistic expectations of their children. Providing services to alleged perpetrators of abuse and neglect has long been viewed as the solution to ending the problem of child abuse. After years of evaluative research, however, many have questioned the effectiveness of existing treatment strategies with the abuser population. Nonetheless, promising treatment strategies have emerged that recognize the developmental, emotional, and physical problems of both children and their abusers. Child abuse prevention programs and community supports are described that may be effective in many cases. Supplemental information on replicating child abuse prevention programs is appended. 27 references and 1 figure