"This state-of-the-art volume brings together in one place the conceptual issues, empirical research, and policy analyses relevant to involving communities in child maltreatment prevention. The book provides an excellent overview of established prevention approaches, such as home visiting by nurses, as well as new and promising community-level interventions. It examines some hot topics in child welfare service delivery, including differential response and quality improvement systems, along with such thorny issues as the tension between preventing maltreatment versus promoting positive child development. An invaluable resource for practitioners, advocates, students, policymakers, and researchers interested in the best thinking about efforts to keep children safe."--Mark E. Courtney, PhD, Executive Director, Partners for Our Children; Ballmer Endowed Chair for Child Well-Being, School of Social Work, University of Washington
"The most comprehensive and balanced volume on the topic to date. In addition to detailed information on several of the best-known community-wide prevention approaches, this book examines the history of prevention efforts, the limitations of traditional child protection programs, and the need for more comprehensive models. It is superb as a handbook on community prevention for experts, an introduction to the subject for students, and a source of ideas for child support professionals. Seldom does a single volume contain such breadth and depth of information about a new and developing area in social science."--Ron Haskins, PhD, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Senior Consultant, Annie E. Casey Foundation
"Reports of child abuse have quadrupled since we passed the first national child abuse law in 1974. In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of outstanding scholars demonstrates that our lack of progress in curbing child abuse is due to not properly conceptualizing this saddest of all social problems. This brilliant and convincing work makes clear that we must move from the simplistic view that the primary cause of abuse is misbehaving or pathological parents to an ecological model in which families receive appropriate attention from community support networks."--Edward Zigler, PhD, Sterling Professor of Psychology Emeritus and Director Emeritus, Edward Zigler Center for Child Development and Social Policy, Yale University
"Several outstanding programs are described in this volume, and authors include details about the programs' staff training, delivery systems, and outcome measures....The contributors to this book provide factual and motivational ammunition" to help communities commit more effectively to combat maltreatment of children. They have fulfilled their purposes admirably! I suggest that public health personnel, law guardians, judges, policy makers, and medical personnel serving families with young children can become more dedicated to active and community-coordinated efforts to decrease child abuse and neglect after reading Preventing Child Maltreatment."
,
PsycCRITIQUES Published On: 2009-06-20
"A valuable resource on this troubling problem....Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty, professionals, and policy makers."
,
Choice Published On: 2010-02-03
"This volume will assist practitioners, advocates, and policy-makers in understanding science-based intervention."
,
Virginia Child Protection Newsletter Published On: 2010-05-09
