The new edition of this classic text continues the legacy. While updating and significantly adding to previous editions, the fifth edition retains the multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach that initially set the work apart. This new edition contains chapters from professionals in such diverse fields as pediatrics, psychiatry, legal studies, and social work that reflect the past decade's extraordinary advances in research and techniques. Twenty of the book's thirty chapters are entirely new, while the remaining material has been extensively revised.

Part 1 provides a historical overview of child abuse and neglect as well as background material on the cultural, psychiatric, social, economic, and legal contexts of child maltreatment. Part 2 discusses the assessing of cases of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect from the unique perspectives of all the professionals involved, including teachers, pediatricians, and social workers. Part 3 describes intervention and treatment, focusing on legal issues, investigative procedures, and therapeutic processes, while part 4 addresses prevention and policy issues.

Previous editions of "The Battered Child" have earned the labels of "a classic" and a "Bible". With its up-to-date information, unequaled scope, and contributions from experts on every aspect of child abuse, the fifth edition of this cornerstone text is even more essential to the field than its predecessors.

"The questions, why should I read this classic? and Whyshould I read this edition of the classic? can be answered in one word: excellence. The sooner we get people in all professions -- not just those in the medical profession -- to read such a book, the better off our children, and our children's children, will be". -- New England Journal of Medicine