Individual papers present theory, research, and clinical practice experience. Topics include the causes and contributing factors to child neglect, definitions and measurement research, cultural issues, short-term and long-term outcomes, evaluation and risk assessment, prevention and intervention, prenatal drug abuse, child fatalities due to neglect, and policy issues. Individual papers note that child neglect receives far less research attention than child abuse, although it is more common than child abuse, and review recent methods of defining and measuring child neglect. Additional chapters emphasize that distortions of mental processing of information and not socioeconomic factors cause child neglect, focus on the need for cultural competence in child protection, and review research on the effects of child maltreatment on its victims. Further chapters focus on the neglect of children’s health care, societal responses to fatal child neglect, the prevention of child neglect, and the role and methods of child protective services in the protection of children. Other chapters propose intervention strategies based on current collective knowledge and experience, assess the rights of battered women who fail to protect their children from abuse, present a research agenda on child neglect, and examine social policy for child maltreatment. Index, editor and chapter author biographies, and chapter notes and reference lists