This book identifies three areas for future policy reform. First, when criminal justice interventions can support improved outcomes for child victims, their function in a case should be so defined. Second, both the child protection agencies and criminal justice agencies should study and develop practices that aim to remove barriers to effective services to families in crisis. Third, collaborative responses to child maltreatment must be improved through collaboration models that specify measurable, clear goals and objectives that use evidence-based practices. The first two chapters present an overview of child maltreatment and policy and practice for addressing it in both the criminal justice and child protection systems. The next two chapters explain a theoretical framework for assessing the ability of these systems to collaborate in investigating child maltreatment cases, with attention to the factors that influence prosecution and child placement decisions. The fifth chapter describes a 1997-98 study of incidents of child abuse that were investigated by both criminal justice and child protection services in Massachusetts. It analyzes the decisionmaking of the two agencies regarding the same areas of child maltreatment, with attention to whether there is an association between the criminal justice prosecution decision and the protective service child placement decision. The findings of the study are reviewed in the sixth chapter, and the concluding chapter draws implications for policy and practice. A 300-item bibliography, appended sample forms and study instruments, and a subject index