Child abuse policy is marked by shifting, historical sensitive paradigms that include the social-problem model of child abuse, the medical view of child abuse, and the psychological model of abuse and neglect. The current psychological model is unlikely to ensure that vulnerable children are protected, however. It emphasizes family therapy and psychosocial intervention, which consume increasing resources and leave an increasing number of poor, minority children to be permanently injured or killed due to inadequate protection from the public agencies mandated to serve them. The analysis concludes that the current paradigm needs to shift dramatically from a psychological model to one based on redefining child abuse as a public safety problem. This redefinition would make child abuse congruent with the crackdown on spouse abuse. It would provide children the same legal protection currently extended to physically and sexually abused women. Reconstructing the entire system of child protective services is also needed. It could be accomplished by establishing a children's authority similar to a school board that would have responsibility for providing or overseeing the child welfare functions of investigation, enforcement, child placement services, prevention and education, family support services, and research and development. Tables, chapter reference notes, and index