Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition that was unknown until 1980. The creation of this diagnosis was intensely controversial, and the 1985 volume, "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children" edited by Spencer Eth and Robert Pynoos, helped establish the validity of this condition during childhood. This text seeks to bring the field of childhood trauma into the 21st century by offering fresh perspectives on five major topic areas in child and adolescent PTSD: techniques for comprehensive evaluation; forensic aspects of traumatized children; juvenile offender and incarcerated youth; biological treatment strategies; and the relationship between exposure to trauma in childhood and the development of psychiatric disorders in adulthood.