Experts offer various suggestions for how to prevent child abuse. Proposed measures include improved reporting methods, reforms of the foster care and adoption laws, and increased availability of drug and alcohol treatment for abusive parents. One of the most controversial ideas is to require parents to have licenses to raise children.

Proponents of parental licensure insist that many children are abused because their parents are incompetent. In order to ensure that such parents are not placed in a position to do harm to children, advocates insist, all parents and prospective parents should be required to undergo a licensing process and be certified as competent to care for children. Jack C. Westman, perhaps the most adamant supporter of parental licensure, explains, “A licensing process for parents would recognize parenting as a relationship sanctioned by society in the same sense that...