Prevention of child physical abuse has focused mainly on at-risk populations or services to offenders and families after abuse has occurred; prevention efforts related to child sexual abuse have tended to focus on preventing initial abuse from taking place or providing services after the abusive event. In addition, physical abuse prevention have aimed efforts at abusive or potentially abusive offenders, where as sexual abuse prevention has tended to focus on the victim of child. However, targeting only offenders or potential offenders is only a short-term solution for reducing or preventing abuse. Similarly, feminist-based child sexual abuse programs that focus only on empowering the victim must broaden to include informational classes that make abusers or potential abusers aware of their responsibilities for preventing or stopping abuse. The hindered communications among social service agencies that result from these divergent models point to the need for workshops to discuss the roots of the philosophical differences and the development of solutions. The third problem centers around whether to spend limited resources on prevention or treatment programs. Most funds are targeted to treatment, although some efforts have focused on generating funds for prevention. However, practitioners must consider theories and philosophies but not allow themselves to overlook their basic obligation, which is to protect children from abuse. Notes and 55 references