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All of the advanced industrialized nations have enacted policies and programs intended to prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect as well as to minimize their adverse consequences for children. These efforts, which manifest as a country's child protection system, have the potential to play an important role with regard to child wellbeing, particularly when considered in concert with a country's broader approach to child and family policy. At the same time, there is considerable variation in child protection efforts across countries and, in many cases, across locales within a country. This chapter describes the range of approaches to child protection that have been adopted by the advanced industrialized counties and how particular approaches, in the context of a country's overarching child and family policy choices, are likely to influence children's wellbeing. It first provides a review of what is known about the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect. Second, it describes the array of approaches to child protection that have been adopted by advanced industrialized countries and the ways in which such choices reflect countries' broader orientations to child and family policy. Third, it provides an analysis of the ways in which such policy choices are likely to influence the wellbeing of children who have suffered abuse or neglect, or are at risk thereof. Finally, it describes the limitations of existing research and highlights the characteristics of child protection systems that are most likely to promote child wellbeing.
