The first aspect of family violence to come to the attention of the American public was child abuse. The first National Child Abuse Act (H.R. 11584) was introduced in 1969. It provided for mandatory reporting by designated professionals, made failure to report a misdemeanor, granted immunity to persons filing a report in good faith, and provided for a child identification system through the issuance of social security numbers to infants at birth. Following attention to child abuse, public awareness of family violence in general, notably wife abuse, increased. Federal bills have been introduced that focus on the general problems of family violence, but thus far none have passed. Abuse of the elderly was first brought to the attention of Congress during a subcommittee hearing on 'Research into Violent Behavior: Domestic Violence,' in February 1978. Subsequently, other congressional hearings focused on elder abuse, and a national study of the problem of elder abuse was conducted by the House Select Committee on Aging. A major conclusion of the report was that elder abuse is a full-scale national problem which is only slightly less than child abuse in frequency. Bills addressing elder abuse were introduced in the 96th and 97th Congresses but have not been enacted. The bills would essentially provide financial assistance for programs of prevention, identification, and treatment of adult abuse, neglect, and exploitation and would establish a National Center for Adult Abuse. Since much of elder abuse is due to stress experienced by caregivers in the dependency relationship, preventive efforts should include the establishment of support systems that will take the strain of caregiving from family members. Twenty-one bibliographic entries and a subject index are provided.