Charting the waves of prevention: two steps forward, one step back.

Background: Over the past 30 years, the political response to child maltreatment and its prevention in the US has experienced periods of frantic activity, often followed by long periods of benign neglect. In reflecting on this history, Dick Krugman has referred to this uneven level of attention as a series of "waves" in which apparent progress is often minimized by an inability to sustain political commitment to a given reform or course of action. To an extent, this pattern reflects deep differences among child welfare advocates, researchers, and practitioners on how best to proceed.