This article reviews and analyzes extant literature on the prevention of child maltreatment. We give an overview of protective factors that research finds to be efficacious in maltreatment prevention and pay particular attention to research that shows how health-based models and community-based models can leverage family and community strengths to that end. We go on to offer recommendations for potential future prevention programming, including an approach with untapped potential—the Prevention Zones framework. Finally, we discuss policy considerations and implications specific to the goal of increasing programming and services that leverage family and community strengths.

In searching for a "disruptive" new paradigm to prevent child abuse, we are drawn to an older approach with unfulfilled promise. In 1993, the United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect published their report Neighbors Helping Neighbors: A New National Strategy for the Protection of Children. The top priority recommendation of the Board was to develop programs that facilitated the development and safety of neighborhoods by establishing Prevention Zones to improve social and physical environments with high rates of child maltreatment. This paper explores how Prevention Zones might be re-imagined today, integrated with services like home-visiting and medical homes, and applied to serious child maltreatment such as abusive head trauma.

We searched the US National Library of Medicine's PubMed, Google Scholar and the American Psychological Association's Psychinfo databases during September 2019 for citations and abstracts on abusive head trauma (AHT) and shaken baby syndrome prevention dated 1 January 2000 to 31 August 2019. We identified 53 empirical studies and performed a structured review to identify the effects of prevention, if any, on AHT. We identified three lines of investigation that have focused on: (i) strategies which teach parents how to respond to newborn crying and the dangers of shaking babies; (ii) community and public health factors; and (iii) professional education and practice. Most studies were observational, although a small number used sophisticated designs such as prospective or randomised controlled trials. We note other strengths and weaknesses of these articles and suggest future directions for research in each of these areas based on the current level of scientific inquiry. Key Practitioner Messages Research on AHT prevention is limited, although a growing research base supports teaching parents how to respond to newborn crying and about the dangers of shaking babies. Social care systems addressing provision of material and other support have positive effects on AHT rates. Professional education should improve practitioners' identification of families with increased risk and enhance AHT identification and treatment. Those wishing to prevent AHT should consider multilevel approaches and their own community needs, practice setting, and patient/client risk profiles when designing strategies.

The United States continues to grapple with longstanding policies and systems that have adversely impacted historically marginalized communities who identify (and are racialized) as non-White. These stem from a legacy of structural and systemic racism, and the long-term consequences of sanctioned colonization. This legacy rests upon a field of scholarly research that is similarly fraught with white supremacy. As a field, we must examine the process of producing and publishing the body of evidence that has codified harmful policies and practices. Although racial and ethnic disparities have been discussed for decades in the child welfare and health systems, systemic racism has received comparatively little attention in academic research and journals. In this commentary, the authors detail concrete steps over the coming years that will advance diversity, equity, inclusion and justice through American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s (APSACs) flagship journal, Child Maltreatment. The journal is committed to anti-racist publication processes, such that the journal pledges to develop procedures, processes, structures, and culture for scholarly research that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in all forms.