Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2008
Over the past 30 years, hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars have been spent on research related to child maltreatment. Yet, with some notable exceptions, this research has produced disappointingly little information that is relevant to policy-makers. In part, this reflects the difficulty of doing policy-relevant research, a problem exacerbated by the unwillingness of most funding sources to support the types of large-scale research projects needed to answer many policy questions. However, part of the blame lies with the research community itself. Too often, researchers have failed to understand the policy issues at stake. As a result, they have not asked the right questions or utilized appropriate research designs. In fact, they often have failed to conceptualize adequately the questions they were trying to address.