Child maltreatment encompasses emotional abuse, neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. Expert professionals involved in the investigation and treatment of young victims have prescribed a multidisciplinary, community-based approach as the best method for ensuring the facts of the case are identified, that the child is safe, that due process is exercised, and that treatment is assured. This approach is designed to lessen the trauma experienced by young victims at the hands of the professionals who are expected to help them. Public departments of social services are required to investigate reports of child maltreatment where the alleged perpetrator is a family member or caretaker; however, abuse that occurs outside the family and that is not connected with the family may be investigated by police personnel. For the relatively small percentage of cases in which criminal prosecution is warranted, both police and the State’s attorney are expected to be willing and knowledgeable participants. There are several models of multidisciplinary cooperation involving medical professionals, State’s attorney, child advocacy organizations, and victim advocates. No particular model is necessarily the best for a given community. Strong alliances among these professionals reduce the trauma that children and nonoffending caretakers experience as a result of professional intervention. Studies conducted with large samples support claims that child maltreatment is a very serious social problem that transcends race, class, education, and income. There are still too many communities for which multidisciplinary investigation and treatment of victims of child maltreatment is not a policy priority. 12 references