Experiences in prenatal life and early childhood that may cause personality disorders or criminal behavior in later life are examined in these proceedings of the Subcommittee on Childhood Experiences as Causes of Criminal Behavior of the Standing Committee on Health, Welfare and Science, Senate of Canada. This issue, the ninth in a series of 19 hearings dating from November 1977 to July 1978, presents expert testimony by Mary Van Stolk on the topic of child abuse. Her thesis is that abused children are the most likely people to be violent in later life and that by ameliorating the conditions contributing to child abuse, both poor prenatal care; birthing procedures which prevent mother/infant bonding; poor reporting of child abuse cases; lack of parenthood and parenting education; lack of control over who can be parents; violent television programming; and poor societal attitudes. The testimony was presented in the form of a brief prepared statement and responses to questions from subcommittee members. The text of the hearings is presented in both English and French. The appendix contains the complete text and bibliographic references of the paper prepared by Ms. Van Stolk for this hearing. (JMB)