Following a discussion of definitional issues, the authors address the limitations of criminological data regarding the victimization of children; however, they argue that even the limited data suggest that children are at higher risk of victimization than adults. A section of the paper then discusses the need for special categories of child victimization that are ignored in crime statistics, such as sibling assault, corporal punishment, physical abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, family abductions, and nonfamily abductions. Such incidents typically involve children as victims and are related to their age and status in society. Another section presents a typology of child victimization by incidence. The typology consists of three approximate and broad categories according to their order of magnitude as follows: "pandemic" victimizations that occur to a majority of children in the course of their development; "acute" victimizations, which are less frequent and occur to a minority of children, but generally have more severe effects on children; and "extraordinary" victimizations, which happen to a small number of children but draw society's attention to a greater degree than the other two categories. Other topics discussed are why children's victimization is so common; the differential character of child victimization; developmental propositions (intrafamily victimization and gender and victimization); routine-activities theory in relation to children; the effects of child victimization; and research needs. 8 tables and 121 references