by Douglas J. Besharov and Jacob W. Dembosky

About the authors: Douglas J. Besharov is a visiting professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs. He is the author of Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide for the Concerned. Jacob W. Dembosky is a research assistant at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs.

With a new government-funded study in hand, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala diagnosed a rising epidemic of child abuse in September 1996. She reported that “child abuse and neglect nearly doubled in the United States between 1986 and 1993”—and that was only the beginning of the ugly news. The number of “serious” cases had quadrupled, and the percentage of cases being investigated by the authorities had actually declined by 36 percent...