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Abstract
The purpose of the present article is to point out some of the main issues on the child abuse assessment process. Considering that child abuse is a worldwide phenomena and that Colombia as other latin American countries has a very high incidence as well. First, we establish as a valide framework to develop the model and the strategies of clinical evaluation, the developmental-ecological model of J. Belsky (1993). Besides of, we consider of importance including the social processing information (Milnard, 1993) to explain some of the individual factors related as risk factors in child abuse.
We believe that clinicians has to differentiate the therapeutic assessment process in child abuse from the protection and legal issues evaluation outcome in child abuse. We present de assessment model based in some assumptions, levels and strategies in a very comprehensive and holistic manner. Conclusions might confirme the urgent need to improve assessment and therapeutic process based on research results.