Portwood / DEFINITION OF CHILD MALTREATMENTCHILD MALTREATME T / FEBRUARY 1999
Coming to Terms With a Consensual
Definition of Child Maltreatment
Sharon G. Portwood
University of Missouri–Kansas City
This study addresses the critical need to clarify current defini-
tions of child maltreatment by identifying the extent to which
consensus exists and highlighting those areas in which key
decision makers disagree as to what affects an abuse determi-
nation. Participants (N = 323) were mental health, legal,
and medical professionals; teachers; parents; and adult non-
parents. Respondents agreed that actual physical or psycho-
logical harm to the child, whether the act is sexual in nature,
seriousness and frequency of the act, and an intent to harm
the child are key factors. The groups began to diverge on
their evaluations of the degree to which intent should be fac-
tored into such a decision. Suggestions for future research
aimed at developing more consistent legal and practice stan-
dards are presented.
Despite the mounting interest in child maltreat-
ment exhibited by the general public and a vast array
of academic and professional disciplines, we have yet
to achieve a clear understanding of exactly how even
the most fundamental terms that characterize cur-
rent policies, legislation, and academic writings, in-
cluding abuse and neglect, should be defined. None-
theless, few would dispute the profound impact that
definitions have on a variety of important areas, in-
cluding the reliability and validity of maltreatment
statistics, research findings and conclusions, report-
ing, intervention strategies, and key policy decisions.
Given the far-reaching consequences of the manner
in which maltreatment is defined, it is not surprising
that so many commentators (e.g., Barnett, Manly, &
Cicchetti, 1993; Garbarino, 1991; Giovannoni, 1991;
Haugaard, 1991; Toth, 1991; Wald, 1991) have argued
for unified definitions of child maltreatment con-
cepts. However, if social and individual value judg-
ments are at the heart of any determination of
whether an act can be considered abusive, as many
(e.g., Belsky, 1991; Emery, 1989) have suggested, it is
indeed difficult to see how a unified definition of
child maltreatment can be developed. Although one
might well challenge the adequacy of any such defini-
tion for purposes of the study, identification, treat-
ment, and prevention of abuse and neglect, the reality
remains that professionals are, in large part, guided
by attempts at such unified definitions as they appear
in statutory law, agency procedures, and a variety of
other contexts. Accordingly, this study was designed
to investigate the extent to which key groups appear
to have a shared understanding of the concept of
child maltreatment.
The current state of definitions. At present, four cate-
gories of child maltreatment are generally recog-
nized: physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological
abuse (or emotional maltreatment), and neglect. Al-
though researchers are afforded a great deal of discre-
tion in formulating their definitions of these and
other child maltreatment terms, other professionals
are governed, in large measure, by legal definitions of
child abuse and neglect. Such definitions, which are
typically delineated in criminal offense and child pro-
tection statutes and/or juvenile or family court juris-
diction acts, vary widely between states. Although
some commentators (e.g., Bulkley, 1985) have noted
a trend toward providing more specific definitions of
prohibited acts, others (e.g., Burns & Lake, 1983;
Kim, 1986) have not been so optimistic, noting that a
majority of jurisdictions fail to delineate clear defini-
tions of the various forms of child maltreatment, in-
stead assuming that the terms used will be subject to
a single interpretation.
CHILD MALTREATMENT / FEBRUARY 1999
Author’s Note: The author wishes to thank N. Dickon Reppucci,
Robert E. Emery, Richard Q. Bell, and Steven Nock of the Univer-
sity of Virginia for their many comments on the doctoral disserta-
tion from which this article is derived.
CHILD MALTREATMENT, Vol. 4, No. 1, February 1999 56-68
© 1999 Sage Publications, Inc.

One common theme found in statutory definitions
of child maltreatment is that of harm or threatened
harm by acts or omissions (Kim, 1986; Roscoe, 1990).
For abuse, the critical factor appears to be a nonacci-
dental injury, whereas neglect encompasses harm to a
child’s health or welfare due to negligent acts or omis-
sions (Roscoe, 1990). As noted by Dubowitz, Black,
Starr, and Zuravin (1993), contrary to other catego-
ries of abuse, definitions of neglect focus on the basic
needs of children being unmet, rather than on the be-
havior or intentions of the adult caretaker. Other cri-
teria on which legal definitions usually depend are the
age of the child and the type of act involved (Hau-
gaard & Reppucci, 1988). Typical of state legal defini-
tions are the relevant provisions of the State Code of
Virginia (1997), which define an “abused or ne-
glected child” as any child
1. whose parents or other person responsible for his
care creates or inflicts, threatens to create or inflict,
or allows to be created or inflicted on such child a
physical or mental injury by other than accidental
means, or creates a substantial risk of death, disfig-
urement or impairment of bodily or mental func-
tions;
2. whose parents or other person responsible for his
care neglects or refuses to provide care necessary for
his health; . . .
3. whose parents or other person responsible for his
care abandons such child;
4. whose parents or other person responsible for his
care commits or allows to be committed any sexual
act upon a child in violation of the law; or
5. who is without parental care or guardianship, caused
by the unreasonable absence or the mental or physi-
cal incapacity of the child’s parent, guardian, legal
custodian or other person standing in loco parentis.
(Sections 16.1-228, 63.1-248.2)
Empirical studies of child maltreatment definitions. Both
empirical studies and commentaries (e.g., Barnett et
al., 1993; Nagi, 1977) indicate that there is a great deal
of dissatisfaction among professionals in the child
protection field regarding imprecise definitions of
maltreatment. One perceived consequence of the am-
biguity arising from current legal definitions is a di-
vergence of views among various professionals
coming into contact with abused children. However,
the small body of empirical literature addressing this
issue suggests a trend toward definitional consensus
between both professional groups and the general
public.
Studies aimed at exploring definitions of child mal-
treatment typically have employed vignettes and ques-
tionnaires designed to assess participants’ percep-
tions of various acts (Atteberry-Bennett, 1987). The
first and most often-cited study of individuals’ defini-
tional constructs was conducted by Giovannoni and
Becerra in 1979. These researchers surveyed lawyers,
pediatricians, police officers, and social workers, as
well as a large representative sample from the general
population of Los Angeles, as to whether they consid-
ered each of a series of vignettes (varied by type of act,
age of victim, occupation of parent involved, and con-
sequences) to reflect child maltreatment, and if so, to
rank the vignettes as to severity. Although overall mal-
treatment ratings were higher among laypersons than
professionals, Giovannoni and Becerra’s (1979) re-
sults suggest that there is more agreement than may
be suspected as to a base standard of child care. Un-
fortunately, however, these results do not indicate
whether the attitudes expressed by participants would
be reflected in actual practice (Graham, Dingwall, &
Wolkind, 1985).
Atteberry-Bennett (1987) used a questionnaire to
present a number of behaviors that could be inter-
preted as either normal family behaviors or sexual
abuse to five groups: therapists, state protective serv-
ice workers, legal professionals, probation or parole
officers, and parents. To determine how these differ-
ent groups agreed and/or disagreed on definitions of
child sexual abuse, she constructed brief vignettes de-
scribing behavior that could occur between a parent
and a child and asked respondents to rate each on a 6-
point scale from definitely is not sexual abuse to definitely
is sexual abuse. One of Atteberry-Bennett’s most in-
triguing findings was that the greatest disagreement
between respondent groups as to ratings of abuse was
between mental health and legal professionals, with
mental health professionals including more acts with
the definition of sexual abuse. Explanations offered
for this discrepancy were the different outcomes of
finding abuse in legal and clinical settings and that at-
torneys are trained to allow for a greater range of ex-
planations for potentially illegal behavior. Legal pro-
fessionals also consistently rated vignettes as less
abusive than did mental health professionals, as well
as protective service workers, probation and parole
officers, and parents, the latter three of whom were
very similar in their ratings.
In a more recent study, Burnett (1993) focused on
ratings of acts involving 8- and 9-year-old children to
determine the parameters of psychological abuse,
comparing an association of professional social work-
ers to a citizen group. Participants were asked to rate a
series of events on three scales: abuse or not abuse, se-
riousness, and whether intervention was warranted.
All acts presented, except for what was labeled (argua-
bly in error) immoral parental behavior (e.g., father
being gay), were considered abusive. Social workers
and members of the general public were essentially
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Portwood / DEFINITION OF CHILD MALTREATMENT 57