Child Maltreatment
Child Protection | Child Protection | Children, Adolescents & Interpersonal Violence
The most current and authoritative resource in the vital and changing field of child abuse and neglect...
An Interdisciplinary Forum
Child Maltreatment answers the urgent need for an interdisciplinary forum disseminating original research, information and technical innovations on child abuse and neglect. The field of child maltreatment is multidisciplinary, embracing diverse professional and cultural identities. Peer-reviewed and written by leading experts, Child Maltreatment provides common ground for practitioners, policy makers and researchers from a variety of disciplines. The journal creates an important synthesis of contributions in science, theory, practice and policy issues. Fields represented include: Law, Social Work, Law Enforcement, Child Protection, Medicine, Psychology, Research, and Prevention.
Accessible and Comprehensive Policy
High quality, original research in the field of child abuse and neglect can have immediate impact on the quality of children’s lives. Child Maltreatment is committed to promoting practice and policy perspectives that are based on the best available empirical scientific evidence.
Special Sections
Occasionally, Child Maltreatment features regular Special Sections and Special Issues dedicated to original research and practice articles dealing with specific topics of pressing concern to the child abuse community. These offer readers broad coverage of focused topics, and present new research and commentary from some of the field's foremost researchers and thinkers.
Put Child Maltreatment in Your Library
Child Maltreatment fills an important gap in research literature and makes a valuable addition to your library’s criminology, psychology, social work or law collection. Free sample copies are available to librarians on request.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Child Maltreatment is the official journal of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), the nation's largest interdisciplinary child maltreatment professional organization. Child Maltreatment's objective is to foster professional excellence in the field of child abuse and neglect by reporting current and at-issue scientific information and technical innovations in a form immediately useful to practitioners and researchers from mental health, child protection, law, law enforcement, medicine, nursing, and allied disciplines. Child Maltreatment emphasizes perspectives with a rigorous scientific base that are relevant to policy, practice, and research. As a publication of APSAC, we are committed to eliminating racism and implicit bias. We seek to enable people from all backgrounds to contribute to and benefit from research that is balanced, grounded, anti-racist, and promotes a more just society.
| Vincent J. Palusci | New York University, USA |
| Mark Chaffin | Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA |
| Gia E. Barboza-Salerno | University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA |
| Rochelle Hanson | Medical University of South Carolina, USA |
| Kathryn Maguire-Jack | University of Michigan, USA |
| Kristin Valentino | University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA |
| Lenneke Alink | Leiden University, Netherlands |
| Douglas Barnett | Wayne State University, USA |
| Stephanie D. Block | University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA |
| Ernestine Briggs | Duke University, USA |
| Derek S. Brown | Washington University in St. Louis, USA |
| Elissa J. Brown | St. John's University - NY, USA |
| Mark Chaffine | Georgia State University, USA |
| Catherine Corr | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Theodore P. Cross | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Angela Crossman | John Jay College - CUNY |
| Amy Damashek | Western Michigan University, USA |
| Carla Kmett Danielson | Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA |
| Chris Derauf | Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, USA |
| David DiLillo | University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA |
| Louise Dixon | Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand |
| Mary Dozier | University of Delaware, USA |
| Howard Dubowitz | University of Maryland, USA |
| Amy Dworsky | Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, USA |
| Candice Feiring | The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USA |
| David Finkelhor | University of New Hampshire, USA |
| Julian Ford | University of Connecticut, USA |
| Bridget Freisthler | The Ohio State University, USA |
| Andrea Gonzalez | McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada |
| Damion Grasso | University of Connecticut, New Hartford, CT, USA |
| Kate Guastaferro | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Neil B. Guterman | New York University, Silver School of Social Work |
| Jesse J. Helton | St. Louis University, USA |
| Daryl Higgins | Institute of Child Protection Studes, Australian Catholic University, Australia |
| Canan Karatekin | University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA |
| Julia M. Kobulsky | Temple University, USA |
| David J. Kolko | University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, USA |
| Shawna Lee | University of Michigan, USA |
| Oliver Lindhiem | University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
| Thomas McMahon | Yale University, USA |
| Darcey Merritt | New York University, USA |
| Joshua P. Mersky | University of Illinois-Chicago, USA |
| Steven Ondersma | Wayne State University, USA |
| Assaf Oshri | University of Georgia, USA |
| Jodi Quas | University of California, Irvine, USA |
| Ramesh Raghavan | Rutgers University, USA |
| Christina Rodriguez | University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA |
| Joseph P. Ryan | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Shannon Self-Brown | Georgia State University, USA |
| Chad Shenk | The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA |
| Jane F. Silovsky | University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre, USA |
| Valerie Simon | Wayne State University, USA |
| Jeff Snarr | SUNY, Brockport, NY, USA |
| Ashwini Tiwari | Augusta University, USA |
| Sheree L. Toth | University of Rochester, USA |
| Frank E. Vandervort | University of Michigan, USA |
| Daniel J. Whitaker, Ph.D. | Georgia State University - Atlanta, Georgia |
| Cathy Spatz Widom | John Jay College, City University of New York, USA |
| Natalie R. Beltrano | University of Windsor, Canada |
| Karissa A. DiMarzio | Florida International University, USA |
| Brett Greenfield | Rutgers University, USA |
| Jeesoo Jeon | Case Western Reserve University, USA |
| Amy H. Lee | Stony Brook University, USA |
| Elizabeth W. Perry | Georgia State University, USA |
| Doris F. Pu | University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA |
| Xutong Zhang | McMaster University, Canada |
Child Maltreatment (CM) is the official journal of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC). CM welcomes manuscripts addressing timely and important topics in practice, policy, and theory, including empirical research articles, systematic review articles, and program evaluations that illustrate theoretical issues or new phenomena. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the editors have pledged to abide by its guidelines regarding the submission and publication of articles, including intellectual property and plagiarism. In addition, in support of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice as well as replicability, CM requires submissions to provide details regarding the characteristics of their samples, including justification of the sample characteristics and a discussion of the limitations and generalizability of the approach. Child Maltreatment understands diversity to include all aspects of human differences, such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, geography, ability, age, and culture. While science seeks knowledge that can be generalized, specific findings may apply to the unique experiences of individuals or groups, and these issues should be addressed in publication.
All submissions should include relevant information about the race/ethnicity, sex/gender, and other demographic characteristics of their samples. Information about the context/location of study should also be provided. If addressed, race and ethnicity should be acknowledged as social constructs, rather than as genetic or biological categories with a clear explanation of how race and/or ethnicity were assigned (e.g., self-report, observation by an investigator or other third-party, electronic health record with uncertain method). Use of “other” as a category for race and/or ethnicity should be clearly defined. It is inappropriate to assign missing race and/or ethnicity to an “other” category. The use of racial and/or ethnic categories in statistical analyses should be justified in the Methods section to the extent possible, and the interpretation of results should be consistent with the understanding that race and racism are social constructs. All submissions should also include a statement about the generalizability of results.
Regular articles should be no more than 35 double-spaced pages, inclusive of title page (auto-generated by the system), abstract, tables, figures, and references. Brief reports also will be accepted, limited to no more than 15 double-spaced pages, inclusive of title page (auto-generated by the system), abstract, tables, figures, and references. Reviews of the literature should be no more than 52 double-spaced pages. Of note, CM is interested primarily in empirical reviews (i.e., meta-analyses, systematic reviews) rather than narrative, descriptive reviews, which are rarely published if not invited. Manuscripts that exceed the page limit may be sent back to authors to be shortened prior to going out for peer review. Authors can include additional materials for online-only publication as supplementary files. There is currently no page limit for online-only supplements. All submissions must include an abstract of approximately 150 words on the first page. Keywords will be requested during the submission process. The authors’ name(s) and affiliation(s) must be listed on a separate Title Page for anonymous review. Authors should mask any other identifying information within the manuscript text prior to submission (e.g. program and IRB names, funding, acknowledgements, references to prior work).
Authors should use 12 pt. Times New Roman font for the main body text and references. Tables and figures should be included at the end of the document, each on a separate page. Submissions should otherwise be prepared and formatted according to the guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition). Manuscripts that do not meet formatting requirements may be edited by CM staff to determine page length and/or sent back to authors for re-formatting.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools cannot take responsibility for the accuracy or integrity of a manuscript and, therefore, do not qualify for authorship. While the use of AI tools is discouraged, if generative AI tools are used in any part of manuscript preparation, from writing to data analysis to image creation, the authors must report it in the Methods and Acknowledgments sections and note use of an AI tool in the cover letter. Identification of AI must include the name and manufacturer of the AI tool and how it was used in relation to the work being submitted. Authors must state in their disclosures that they reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of all material in their manuscript, including any content generated by AI.
Submission to Child Maltreatment implies that the manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by any other journal. Please include a cover letter with a statement to this effect, information about any papers published using the same dataset, information on how the paper makes a novel contribution to the literature, any recommended reviewers, and any other pertinent information with all submissions.
Submissions in Microsoft Word format may be uploaded to ScholarOne Manuscripts at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/childmaltreatment.
For any queries regarding the submission process or a manuscript’s appropriateness for CM, please contact: childmaltreatment@apsac.org.