1 Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02154
Professor Gil's answer to Dr. Fontana's letter (Pediatrics, 45:509) covers many of the questions raised by Dr. Helfer. He comments on Dr. Helfer's letter as follows.
Dr. Helfer expresses concern with the definition of child abuse which I used, but fails to state what was wrong with this definition nor does he suggest an alternative one. He is concerned with my having used data from 1967 abuse reports since state reporting mechanisms were then too new.