Child abuse and neglect

Child abuse, long neglected by both society and medicine, is now a focus of public attention. Cases of suspected maltreatment are often featured in the news media and argued in the courts. Some cases raise profound questions about the relative rights of parents, children, and those charged with child abuse. Allegations of sexual abuse by celebrities have raised questions of privacy both for those charged with abuse and for their alleged victims, and cases of fatal physical abuse among middle-class families have challenged the stereotype that violence in the home occurs only among the poor or disadvantaged. Physicians and others.