Because of ever more stringent laws prohibiting physical child abuse, and because of increased public and professional awareness of the extent of this problem, clinicians are more frequently being confronted with the problems of conceptualizing and dealing with child abuse in their daily practice. The purpose of this chapter is 5-fold. First, the extent of the problem will be described both in terms of frequency and in terms of critical ages at which children are at highest risk. Second, some relationships between physical abuse and family process variables will be described. Third, a number of general guidelines for working with abusive families will be presented. Fourth, assessment procedures will be discussed. Finally, attempts to use behavioral interventions with abusive families will be reviewed.